MEPs call for common card payment fees

MEPs want common card fees

Members of the European Parliament have adopted a resolution calling for rules regarding fees for card payments to be modelled on those used for cross-border bank transfers in order to make paying cheap, easy and safe (view press release).

The EU’s economic and monetary affairs committee want common technical and security standards across the EU which it says would make card payments easier to handle and the fees charged for handling them should accurately reflect real costs. These new rules should be based on the single Euro payments area (SEPA) regulation which controls euro debit and direct debit transactions among banks. MEP’s said: “Just as SEPA is designed to remove the gap between domestic and cross-border bank transfers, so the goal of integrating the card payment market should be to make cross-border payments as convenient as payments at national level.”

The resolution also calls for the adoption of a similar model to SEPA regarding internet and mobile payments, and greater transparency in terms of fees, security and standardisation to make handling fees converge to the common lowest level based on real costs”.

Related reading

Leave a comment