Tag: credit card

Stealing confidential information on the Internet is becoming increasingly sophisticated and tricky to monitor as it can hit legitimate websites, Symantec's security intelligence chief told EurActiv, warning that 1.6 million new malicious threats have been identified in 2008 alone.

Addressing low customer mobility from one bank account to another should be the first priority of a European legislative initiative on the retail banking sector, MEP Gianni Pittella told EurActiv.

Purchasing plane tickets online is one of the least secure transactions that can be carried out with a payment card and chances are high that customers will be targeted by fraudsters, according to a report published yesterday (28 April) by the European Commission.

In the European single market there are still large differences between the national payment systems. The EU seeks to remove these obstacles and reduce the costs to cross-border payments for consumers by creating a Single Euro(pean) Payments Area (SEPA). The European Payments Council (EPC) was set up to develop a common infrastructure and standards. However, there is only little progress, since banks are reluctant to apply standards and fear competition being opened up to non-banks, which makes it difficult to reach the 2010 target. Therefore, the Commission has laid out a common legal framework in its 2005 proposal.

Concerning opinions expressed about the European Central Bank (ECB) by newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Paul de Grauwe, professor at Leuven University, warns that such criticism could endanger the monetary union, in an interview with EurActiv.

Visa Europe has become the first company to declare a date for compliance with new Commission-led rules on the Single European Payment Area (SEPA).

Despite EU acceptance of VISA's fee structure in 2003, the UK competition authority has begun an action against the credit card company and its member banks for possible anti-competitive practices.

The banking group, the European Payments Council (EPC), has announced plans to introduce two new single payment systems across Europe by January 2008.