Brussels, 20/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - A few days ahead of a conference on euro payments in the internal market (Brussels, 24 September), the Commission is continuing to combat excessive charges for cross-border transfers in Europe. A survey published by the European Commission on Thursday shows that commission on cross-border payments averages euro 24 for a euro 100 transfer between two Member States. This survey supplements another poll published with great acclaim by the Commission in July on the occasion of publishing a new draft Regulation forcing banks to charge the same amount for national and cross-border transactions. The new survey shows that the cost of a euro 100 transaction ranges from an average of euro 44 in Greece to euro 9.7 in Luxembourg. The Netherlands and Belgium charge less than euro 12, while Ireland, the UK, Portugal, Sweden and France charge above the EU average of euro 24. The study looked at 1,480 transfers of euro 100 and clearly shows that clients too often do not receive information about the charges they will be levied under the current Directive and are often double-billed (which is not authorised), explained the Internal Market Commissioner, Frits Bolkestein, in a press release.
The European Savings Banks Group President, Chris de Noose, said that is was not fair to hold banks exclusively responsible for current problems since the banking sector had not been sufficiently borne in mind when the 1997 Directive on cross-border payments was drawn up. He felt the Commission was about to repeat that mistake since it published its draft regulation unilaterally in July. Mr Bolkestein's spokesperson, Johnathan Todd, rejected this, explaining that all interested parties can make constructive criticism, but the Commission had no choice but to publish its proposal in the runup to the changeover to the euro on 1 January 2002 after 12 years of dialogue with the banking sector seeking possible alternatives.