About: payment transactions
SEPA: Smart, Easy – Perfectly Adequate!
Establishing a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) for non-cash bulk transfers, which would cut costs for European companies and bring greater transparency for consumers, is easy and logical, write Meta Zähres and Sophie Ahlswede from Deutsche Bank (DB) Research.
Payment Services Directive: The end of the cash era?
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.
Visa told to reduce transaction fees
The European Commission sent a formal statement to Visa on Friday (3 April), announcing its intention to bring an antitrust case against the credit card firm for over-charging its fees.
New deal brings EU mobile phone payments closer
Using a mobile phone to make direct payments could become the norm in Europe following cooperation announced between the GSM Association (GSMA), which brings together the world's major mobile operators, and the European Payment Council (EPC), the body representing the EU banking sector.
MasterCard temporarily annuls cross-border fees
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.
EU: Flights and restaurants risky for payment cards
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.Commission investigates Visa’s cross-border card fees
The European Commission has opened a formal inquiry into the fees imposed by Visa on card payments made across EU borders, saying it will seek to determine whether prices have been fixed at an unduly high level.