Brussels, 28/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The regulation, that will make it compulsory for banks to apply the same tariffs for national and cross-border payments in euros, will enter into force on 1 July for payments by bankcard or cash withdrawals from cash distributors, and for payments between bank accounts as of 1 July 2003. In a press release, the Commission considers that withdrawals should cost less than before. Withdrawing 100 euros from a distributor in a Member State other than one's state of residence cost around 24 euros in 2001, a tariff that Commissioner Frits Bolkestein considered "monstrous". If consumers note that the costs for cross-border payments are higher than for national payments, they may complain to the Fin-net network of banking mediators. If the conflict is not settled by out of court procedure, it should be settled in national courts. Competition between banks should ensure they will not increase national tariffs to compensate for losses on cross-border payments, says Jonathan Todd, Mr Bolkestein's spokesman.
For the time being, neither the association representing consumer organisations in Brussels, the BEUC, nor the European Banking Federation (EBF), have yet noted the tariffs practised by banks. According to Patrick Poncelet, of the EBF, "banks should probably not pass on the cost of cross-border payments by increasing the tariff of national payments" but rather integrate it in all banking costs. "There is no reason to make consumers pay cross-border payment services when they only use their cards for national payments", he said. According to the EBF, cross-border payments account for 10-15% of all bank card payments. Furthermore, "paradoxically, payments and cross-border withdrawals using bankcards have fallen in number since the introduction of the euro as people travel more with cash drawn from their own account before leaving", noted Patrick Poncelet.