Brussels, 31/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Commission put an end to infringement procedures against the Finnish, Belgian, Irish, Dutch and Portuguese banks accused of having, by common agreement, maintained at a certain level the conversion tariffs for Euro zone currency notes in order to compensate the losses caused by the introduction of the single currency. In fact, the banks in question decided to set their tariffs independently from each other and to provide cheaper and more competitive services. As a reminder, last summer the Commission had begun several procedures against nearly one hundred banks in seven countries of the Euro zone (see EUROPE of 15 July, p.15). Since April, many banks unilaterally decided to significantly reduce the commissions charged for the exchanging of notes. To this day, procedures remain open against banks in Germany and Austria. Out of the seventeen procedures initiated in Germany, fifteen remain under the scrutiny of the European competition authorities, as well as eight initiated in Austria. All the procedures will, nevertheless, be concluded by the end of the year in an automatic manner, with the official introduction of the single currency.