Wednesday 21 November 2012

European fees for card payments?

Another resolution that was adopted yesterday by the European Parliament concerned EU rules for card payments and aimed at further harmonising cross-border payments. Moreover, it could remove fake fees - that unnecessarily make payments with cards more expensive in relation to their actual cost. Interestingly, the MEPs believe this could be achieved just by introducing transparency in the market, since competition would take care of properly set fees then (no need for capping). All in all, the MEPs argue for common rules for personal credit and debit card payments, which rules could be based on the ones developed for cross-border bank transfers (SEPA - single Euro payments area). The MEPs also looked ahead and expressed a less urgent need to unify the rules for internet and mobile payments in the future, as well. (Towards common fees for card payments)