Tag: payment services

Europe has been on the cusp of a payments revolution since 2007, when it established a single rulebook setting the same payment standards and obligations across the 31-member EU/EEA. But the Payments Services Directive and a voluntary payments scheme, the Single Euro Payments Area, were welcomed only guardedly by the industry and member states and banks have been slow to implement both initiatives.

While the EU admits its plan to create a Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) across Europe will take longer than expected, consumer and banking groups argue that the scheme needs to be revised before it is rolled out any further.

The EU's Payment Services Directive (PSD) is in danger of "creating a legislative labyrinth," warns Professor Maria Chiara Malaguti in a recent paper for the European Credit Research Institute (ECRI).

Despite the EU's official determination to reduce "inefficient cash payments" across Europe, EU rules allow extra charges to be applied to card payments, indirectly supporting the use of cash.

European banks expect to spend between €10 and €100 million each to apply the new provisions of the Payment Services Directive, the EU legislative initiative designed to increase competition in the payment sector and facilitate a gradual migration to a non-cash economy, according to a new survey.

MasterCard is provisionally repealing the cross-border interchange fees it charges on all transactions made in Europe with credit or debit cards in a bid to comply with a Commission deadline of 21 June. But it will continue to look for a fee scheme that complies with EU rules.

Since 28 January 2008, every credit transfer carried out in euros is processed in the same way across Europe, with identical procedures and the same timeframe, but at a cost that will remain different from bank to bank "for a certain time".

While the internet is seen by many suppliers and consumers as a virtual trading platform, payment systems are the 'Achilles heel' of e-commerce for the consumer, argues Stefan Heng from the Deutshe Bank Research.

According to Gauzès, MEP and rapporteur on payment services in the internal market, the new propositions add to the directive’s efficiency and take into account the technical constraints of the industry, while maintaining the objective of a cost reduction for consumers.