Brussels, 24/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission should adopt a proposal for a regulation that would require banks to invoice national and cross-border transfers at the same price. This regulation would apply to all payments and withdrawals by bank cards from 1 January 2002, and to cheques and transfers between bank accounts from 1 January 2003. It will concern all transactions in euro below 50,000, including in Member States which are not part of the euro zone. "From the time the euro comes into circulation, consumers will no longer be prepared to pay prohibitive sums for transactions between States", commented the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Frits Bolkestein, when presenting his draft regulation to the press on Tuesday. Even though cross-border operations only represent some 1% of payments, this measure is important to accompany the launch of the euro, the Commissioner went on. The subject will be looked at in greater depth at a conference on "Cross-Border Payments in the Internal Market", organised by the Commission on 24 September.
Following eleven years of negotiations with banks "which have not stuck to their undertakings (…) our patience has now run out", declared Bolkestein. "I don't expect banks to appreciate our proposal, in fact some have already let their opposition be known. But I believe that they will understand that the Commission's patience has run out", he added. He recalled that, according to an analysis the Commission presented recently (see EUROPE of 13 July, p.8 and 14 July, p.17), the costs of cross-border payments of 100 euro represented an average of 23.9 euro in the EU, which is a "monstrosity". The Commission does not intend regulating the price of banking services, but set up the principle of non-discrimination between national and cross-border transactions, the Commissioner insisted. He hoped that the regulation would not lead to an increase in price for "domestic" transactions. "We shall see what the Commission will do if prices increase", he conceded. "Banks will have 18 months to prepare, which should be enough", said the Commissioner, stressing that "everything is already in place" for changes regarding credit cards.
In principle, the regulation should also improve price transparency, by requiring of banks that they inform their customers before any price alteration. On the other hand, the regulation should ease certain declaratory obligations currently required of banks, raising the declaratory threshold to 12,500 euro from 1 January 2002 and 50,000 in 2004. Finally, it will render compulsory the use of certain standards like the international numbering of accounts or banking establishments, so as to play in favour of making payments systems automatic.