Frankfurt, 15/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Central Bank published a report (Improving cross-border retail payment services) describing progress made in the field of exchange costs in the euro area since the Bank's publication, in 1999, of the report Improving cross-border retail payment services - The Eurosystem's view, which described seven goals to be met by January 2002. The new interim report notes that, although the sector concerned has "clearly committed itself to the fulfillment of the Eurosystem's objectives and has focused on cross-border credit transfers, as it was called upon to do" most objectives are not yet fulfilled. That having been said, the report notes progress made to "preparing the ground for a more efficient handling of cross-border retail payments", and notes that the banking sector has "agreed on straight-through processing - STP.
The Bank states that the Eurosystem "is at present maintaining its policy of not becoming operationally active", whereas it will continue to "facilitate and encourage discussions aimed at the timely fulfillment of the objectives"; but observes that, despite the introduction of the euro, "in too many cases the payee has been illegally charged with some exchange costs (EUROPE recalls that the European Commission has stepped in concerning a series of banks in several Member States). The ECB notes that the European Credit Sector Associations have developed two initiatives aimed at remedying the situation, these are: - introduction of a "multilateral interbank exchange fee"; - a "basic" service which should provide a guaranteed service level and ensure transparent and attractive price conditions. Under these conditions, the ECB recommends that:
Payment infrastructure providers and banks should public commit by the end of 2000 to the implementation of STP standards and should implement these standards by mid-2001;
The banking sector should ease, with immediate effect, the unlawful "double charging" practice and find a solution to the underlying problem; if the MIF is adopted by the banking sector for this purpose, it should be implemented by mid-2001;
The banking sector should define a standard cross-border credit transfer product with a common name, that most banks should provide and be applicable at latest by mid-2001;
The banking sector should launch information campaigns targeting private and corporate customers in order to inform them about the standards and information which should be included in invoices and payment orders. The banking sector should elaborate a practical proposal for tthiscampaign by the end of 2000.
(The report, entitled "Improving cross-border retail payment services - Progress Report", is accessible on the ECB's Website, in the "other publications" section: http: //http://www.ecb.int ).