92001E1789

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1789/01

by Jaime Valdivielso de Cué (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 June 2001)

Subject: Consumer protection

The Commission has recently concluded a number of studies into the level of charges levied on small-scale bank transfers between various countries within the European Union.

The findings speak for themselves: such transactions attract charges averaging 17 % and are 10 times more expensive than domestic transfers.

What action is to be taken and on what timescale in order to remedy this state of affairs?

When are charges for transfers between the EMU countries to be brought into line with those for domestic transfers?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(20 September 2001)

The Honourable Member rightly points out that former, recent and ongoing studies show no substantial decrease of banking charges for retail cross-border credit transfers.

It is the Commission's political goal that fees of cross-border and domestic transfers should converge. This has been repeated by the Commission on numerous occasions; e.g. in the Communication Retail Payments in the Internal Market of January 2000, in the reply of the Commission responsible for Internal Market, Taxation and Customs Union on the Peijs-Report in the Parliament on 26 October 2000, in the Commission's Round Table Conference Establishing a Single Payment Area on 9 November 2000 as well as in the Report on the Preparations for the Introduction of euro notes and coins of 3 April 2001.

It had always been the Commission's strong belief that the determination of charges and fees should be left to competition and market forces and that European legislation should not aim at price regulation. The Commission has therefore for more than a decade urged the banking industry to make the necessary investments for efficient and automated (hence cheaper) cross-border payment systems. The Commission acknowledges the banks' efforts in order to provide cheaper cross-border payments to their customers, especially in connection with implementing the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and the Bank Identifier Code (BIC).

However, given that all former non-legislative efforts to lower charges for cross-border payments remained virtually ineffective, the Commission has adopted on 25 July 2001 a proposal for a regulation on charges for cross-border payments(1). The proposed Regulation aims at a reduction of charges for cross-border payments of up to 50 000 in euro, so that by 1 January 2002 (concerning electronic payment transactions), respectively by 1 January 2003 (concerning cross-border credit transfers and cross-border cheques) charges would be aligned to those for corresponding payments at national level.

The Commission is aware that banks face various external costly obstacles and obligations, which are presently at least partly responsible for the existing difference of charges. The proposed regulation includes measures to remove these obstacles.

(1) COM(2001) 439 final.