Plans to allow EU citizens to switch bank accounts more easily, and offering fundamental rights to open an account, represent the opening salvo in a series of proposals this year. Helena Walsh argues that behind the consumer benefits of the banking proposals, thorny practical questions remain unaddressed.
The European Union has spent billions of euros to build roads in sub-Saharan Africa that are left to deteriorate because of poor maintenance, the European Court of Auditors said on Tuesday (15 January).
The potential benefits of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) are in danger of being outweighed by the risks as consumer groups’ warnings fall on deaf ears, according to a letter sent by European consumers’ organisation BEUC to MEPs and diplomats yesterday (25 January).
Visa will likely be asked to lower the fees on its payment cards before Neelie Kroes ends her mandate as EU competition commissioner, sources close to the negotiations between the card company and the EU executive told EurActiv.
According to Deutsche Bank, migration to online banking will hit 60% of the EU’s population by 2020, prompting security experts to warn about data privacy issues in the face of rising organised crime on the Internet. EurActiv spoke to online security expert Samee Zafar.
As banking migrates to the Internet, so too does payment fraud. Banks will have to be one step ahead of organised criminals to protect online payments, argues security expert Samee Zafar. EurActiv spoke to the banking security expert, who has been advising banks in the City of London on the EU’s Payments Services Directive (PSD), which is expected to boost online payments.
Even though France will be unveiling the EU’s first payments via mobile SIM cards this year, so-called m-payments face an uncertain future as phone operators worry about their bottom lines and consumers wonder who will be tracking their payments.
The architects of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), designed to harmonise euro-denominated money transfers, hope the system will allow customers to make payments using mobile phones. Dag-Inge Flatraaker, from the bank-driven European Payments Council, told EurActiv that banks have come a long way but must now work to iron out security issues.
Dag-Inge Flatraaker is general manager and head of Interbank Infrastructure and Payment System Strategy at Norwegian bank DnB NOR. He has also worked with the European Payments Council (EPC) on establishing a SEPA strategy for e-commerce and m-payments.
Flatraaker was speaking to EurActiv’s Claire Davenport.
To read a shortened version of this interview, please click here. More »
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The architects of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), designed to harmonise euro-denominated money transfers, hope the system will allow customers to make payments using mobile phones. Dag-Inge Flatraaker, from the bank-driven European Payments Council, told EurActiv that banks have come a long way but must now work to iron out security issues.
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.
The new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) launched today (28 January) is widely expected to bring price reductions for consumers and offer new business opportunities for banks and payment operators across borders, according to a recent study.
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”.
Consumers take centre stage in the Commission’s Green Paper on Retail Financial Services, which lays down options on how to make retail banking and insurance services better and cheaper for EU citizens. However, the Commission, Parliament and industry are at odds over how to improve consumer protection and choice in retail financial services.
The European Commission will allow banks to temporarily charge more for certain financial transactions to encourage them to invest in a smooth transition to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), the platform aimed at making cross-border payments as easy as domestic ones.
The European Commission yesterday (10 September) laid down a roadmap for rolling out the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) intended to create the same rules and standards on electronic payment services in euros.
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.
Payments in 31 European countries are about to get faster, cheaper and easier once the EU’s ambitious Payments Services Directive is fully translated into national law. However, member states have begun to opt out of some parts of the rulebook, making a level playing field harder to attain.
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.
The new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) launched today (28 January) is widely expected to bring price reductions for consumers and offer new business opportunities for banks and payment operators across borders, according to a recent study.
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”.
Consumers take centre stage in the Commission’s Green Paper on Retail Financial Services, which lays down options on how to make retail banking and insurance services better and cheaper for EU citizens. However, the Commission, Parliament and industry are at odds over how to improve consumer protection and choice in retail financial services.
The European Commission will allow banks to temporarily charge more for certain financial transactions to encourage them to invest in a smooth transition to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), the platform aimed at making cross-border payments as easy as domestic ones.
The European Commission yesterday (10 September) laid down a roadmap for rolling out the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) intended to create the same rules and standards on electronic payment services in euros.
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.
Payments in 31 European countries are about to get faster, cheaper and easier once the EU’s ambitious Payments Services Directive is fully translated into national law. However, member states have begun to opt out of some parts of the rulebook, making a level playing field harder to attain.
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.
The potential benefits of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) are in danger of being outweighed by the risks as consumer groups’ warnings fall on deaf ears, according to a letter sent by European consumers’ organisation BEUC to MEPs and diplomats yesterday (25 January).
Visa will likely be asked to lower the fees on its payment cards before Neelie Kroes ends her mandate as EU competition commissioner, sources close to the negotiations between the card company and the EU executive told EurActiv.
According to Deutsche Bank, migration to online banking will hit 60% of the EU’s population by 2020, prompting security experts to warn about data privacy issues in the face of rising organised crime on the Internet. EurActiv spoke to online security expert Samee Zafar.
As banking migrates to the Internet, so too does payment fraud. Banks will have to be one step ahead of organised criminals to protect online payments, argues security expert Samee Zafar. EurActiv spoke to the banking security expert, who has been advising banks in the City of London on the EU’s Payments Services Directive (PSD), which is expected to boost online payments.
Even though France will be unveiling the EU’s first payments via mobile SIM cards this year, so-called m-payments face an uncertain future as phone operators worry about their bottom lines and consumers wonder who will be tracking their payments.
The architects of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), designed to harmonise euro-denominated money transfers, hope the system will allow customers to make payments using mobile phones. Dag-Inge Flatraaker, from the bank-driven European Payments Council, told EurActiv that banks have come a long way but must now work to iron out security issues.
Dag-Inge Flatraaker is general manager and head of Interbank Infrastructure and Payment System Strategy at Norwegian bank DnB NOR. He has also worked with the European Payments Council (EPC) on establishing a SEPA strategy for e-commerce and m-payments.
Flatraaker was speaking to EurActiv’s Claire Davenport.
To read a shortened version of this interview, please click here. More »
Go to Source
The architects of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), designed to harmonise euro-denominated money transfers, hope the system will allow customers to make payments using mobile phones. Dag-Inge Flatraaker, from the bank-driven European Payments Council, told EurActiv that banks have come a long way but must now work to iron out security issues.
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.
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