Brussels, 17/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the report by Dutch Christian Democrat Karla Peijs on cross-border payments. In so doing, it approved the European Commission's proposal aimed at putting an end to the exorbitant bank charges imposed for cross-border transfers and payments within the euro zone. In order to facilitate quick adoption of the regulation, which is the object of codecision procedure, the parliamentary committee is to propose to the plenary in Strasbourg in November that it should only adopt a limited number of amendments aimed at clarifying the text. These changes make clear that: - banking institutions are fee to offer payment services in a limited area, for instance bank accounts that do not allow cross-border payments, as long as they do not discriminate; - and Member States are responsible for fixing sanctions applying to banks that do not comply with the European regulations. MEPs also call for a report to be made for January 2004 on implementation of the regulation and its possible review.
The proposal of regulation, adopted by the European Commission in July (see EUROPE of 25 July, p.6), makes it compulsory for banks to apply to cross-border operations the same charges as for national operations. This should be set in place in two stages: on 1 January 2002 for bankcard operations and from 1 January 2003 for cross-border transfers and payment by cheque. EUROPE recalls that a study, published by the Commission on 20 September, showed that the costs imposed by the banks have remained unchanged since 1993 (see also EUROPE of 21 September, p.12).