Brussels, 15/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - At the end of March, the European Parliament and the Council reached an informal political agreement on two legislative proposals aiming to update European legislation on electronic payment services: - a directive on the institutions' activity and supervision of electronic money (see EUROPE 9760); - a regulation on cross-border direct debits (see EUROPE 9762). This agreement will be confirmed next week by the plenary session of the EP, which will vote on a single amendment for each text, paving the way for a definitive adoption of the rules at first reading.
Directive 2007/46/EC creates a framework for the electronic currency market, on which "electronic purse" operators are active (e.g. Proton in Belgium, Geldkarte in Germany). The revision of European legislation aims to create a genuine single market and to stimulate competition, particularly by bringing in non-banking operators, such as mobile telephone operators. The provisions of directive 2007/64/EC on "payment services" will be applicable to all electronic money institutions as regards requests for accreditation, the granting/withdrawal of the accreditation and the registration and controls on service providers (see EUROPE 9523). The minimum initial capital operators will be obliged to hold will be reduced from 1 million to 350,000 euros, the Commission having proposed 125,000 euros and the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the EP 200,000 euros. Calculating the total amount of own funds necessary for the production of electronic money will be 2% of the outstanding electronic money, but the MEPs would rather see a lower percentage (1.5%). Apart from their activities in issuing electronic currency, the operators will be authorised to offer other services, payment, advisory and payment systems management. They may issue credit only if they are linked to the payments, as laid down in directive 2007/64/EC, if this credit is not granted from the funds received in exchange for the issuing of electronic money. However, the provision of deposit services is not allowed.
Consumers may at any time request the reimbursement of any money placed with a service provider. A fee may be charged for this reimbursement if the request is made before the end of the contract or more than one year after the contract expires. The payment of interest related to the duration for which electronic money is held by an operator will not be permitted. The (non-) judicial appeals procedures of directive 2007/64/EC will apply. The entry into force of the rules is scheduled for 18 months after the publication of the directive in the Official Journal. Before November 2012, the Commission will publish a report on the implementation of this directive.
The proposed regulation brings in the principle of equality in costs invoiced for national and cross-border direct debit payment services below 50,000 euros. This principle is extended to cross-border direct debit payments anticipated for November 2009 in the framework of the implementation of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). The political agreement brings in multilateral interchange fees (MIF) of a value of 0.088 euro, to be invoiced by the debitor's bank to the creditor's bank over a transitional period of three years (November 2009-November 2012). The Commission did not make a proposal to this effect, but an external study it commissioned identified a possible figure of 0.093 cents. Regarding national direct debit payments, the Member States will be able to keep in place their own system during the transitional period. In Germany, for example, MIFs are applicable in the event of errors with the payment concerned. The Commission will report back on the implementation of the regulation before November 2012. At the end of March, it declared, together with the European Central Bank, that MIFs would be authorised over the same transitional period for cross-border direct debit payments (see EUROPE 9870). The banking industry immediately reacted against the end of the MIFs. (M.B./trans.fl)