Press Release: Bank charges: Commission urges banks and Member States to cut costs

The European Commission is urging banks and Member States to do much more to bring down the cost of small-value transfers between Member States and other cross-frontier operations. The statement has been prompted by the results of a survey undertaken by an independent institute for the Commission in the 11 euro-zone countries, which reveals that consumers are still being charged on average a fee of €17.10 for transferring €100 between Member States. A domestic credit transfer normally costs less than €1. Moreover, in 25% of cases the recipient was charged part of the costs of the transfer despite the specific request that all charges should be borne by the originator. Unauthorised double charging violates the cross-border transfers Directive (97/5), which was to be implemented by August 1999. Costs for exchanging cash average 3.3% for €100 and 7.07% for €50. Withdrawals from cash machines in EU countries other than where the bank card is issued are about 3.84% for €100 and credit card charges can be 0.79% on top of the annual cost of card membership.

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