Commission set to launch single payments-area plan

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 13/10/05

New rules on creating a single market for EU payments will be published at the beginning of November, European Voice has learnt.

They will set out the rules for offering services in the EU, such as registration requirements, information to be given to customers and liability rules, with the ultimate aim of making sure consumers can make cross-border payments as easily as they can at home.

According to sources, the European Commission is planning to ease the liability rules for banks concerning payments that originate outside the EU.

Banks will no longer be responsible for ensuring that payments go to the right account but only that the payment has moved correctly between the two banks. Information will only have to be given to the client at the beginning of a contract and corporate clients will be exempt from rules giving a six-week right to withdraw on direct debit.

More stringent rules forcing banks to use the existing pan-EU infrastructure for cross-border payments, which only account for 1% of transactions, will be published early in 2006 and the Commission's internal market department plans to launch a consultation.

European banks have a self-imposed deadline of 2008 for a pan-eurozone debit system.

Article reports on plans of the European Commission to put forward proposals on the creation of a single market for EU payments in November 2005.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/internal_market/payments/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/internal_market/payments/index_en.htm

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