Brussels, 19/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - In June, the European Commission is to present a communication defining a legal framework for a single payment area within the internal market, it was confirmed by Jean Allix, in charge of the Commission's "financial transactions" dossier. In answer to questions put to him during a hearing of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, he pointed out that this communication could be followed, "if necessary", by a directive or a regulation in October or November this year.
The communication, which has been in preparation for the past year with the parties interested, will identify about twenty legal obstacles that hamper cross-border payments other than cash payments and will propose guidelines for overcoming these obstacles. Difficulties arise, for example, from the fact that it is impossible to establish a cross-border automatic payment or from the diverse nature of the rules on payment "responsibility" by bank card. In France and Germany, in particular, payment by bankcard is irrevocable, whereas clients may stop payment elsewhere in Europe. The Commission should also evoke the question of being able to carry on account numbers so that a client may keep the same numbers when changing banks. Nonetheless, Jean Allix remarked in response to Karla Peijs (EPP, NL) during the hearing, the question is extremely complex in so far as these account numbers are not harmonised. Some Member States use 13-digit numbers, others 27-digit numbers, for example, he recalled.
The aim is also to give greater coherence to the Community arsenal governing cross-border payments. The last to date is the regulation on cross-border payments that makes it compulsory for banks to apply the same tariff for national and cross-border payments by card as of 1 July 2002, and for transfers from 1 July 2003. On the whole, the introduction of the system went off well after several adjustments in Greece and in Italy in particular, Jean Allix noted. "The regulation seems to have been implemented smoothly", Jim Murray, from the European Consumers' Organisation, said. He nonetheless noted that "some banks have used this opportunity to increase their charges on national payments". He cited the case of the "Société Générale", the "Banques Populaires" and "Crédit Mutuel", in France, which increased the charge on withdrawals outside their network. He also noted similar increases on withdrawals out of network, in Austria and Greece and, according to some reports, the BSCH in Spain.
In Germany, the banks stepped up the prices of national withdrawals by bankcard by calculating the average (4 euros) between the former prices for national withdrawals (3 euros) and withdrawals in a bank of another Member State (5 euros), Mr Westphal, Representative for German consumers, noted. "In practice, the regulation is applied in Germany, but one can understand that the consumers do not appreciate this rise", Mr Allix noted. A rise that the Chair of the Economic and Monetary Committee, Christa Randzio-Plath, like the representative of German consumers, Mr Westphal, attribute to the lack of competition on the market. Mr Arira, from BNP Paribas, defended the cause of the banks stressing that, in France, cross-border withdrawals are not invoiced. "I cannot see what more we could do other than make them free of charge", he said.
Portuguese Socialist Helena Torres Marques called on the speakers to justify the differences in commission costs that traders have to pay to bankcard networks for each transaction. Why should commission for a bankcard transaction be 0.5% in France and 4% in Portugal?, she asked. Along the same lines, Mr Durieux, from Eurocommerce, felt it is not justified to have commissions expressed as a percentage and not as a fixed amount, when transaction costs are the same whatever the amount changing hands. Mr Arira again defended the banks stressing that the Visa card system guarantees that traders receive payment, even if the client is in the red. Furthermore, he said, costs may be different according to the country: in France security is ensured by smart cards while there is considerable fraud in other Member States with magnetic strip cards. The matter is being studied, Mr Allix said.