BRUSSELS -- The European Union's Council of Internal Market Ministers on Nov. 26 approved a proposed regulation according to which charges for cross-border bank transactions would be the same across as within member states.
Amendents agreed upon by the Council were endorsed by the European Commission, according to a news release. Once the Council has formally adopted its common position on the proposal at a future meeting, it will be forwarded to the European Parliament for its second reading.
The proposal was first presented by the European Commission in July 2001. As amended by the Council, the regulation would require:
- Charges for withdrawals from ATMs and the use of bank cards (up to €12,500) to be the same, when denominated in euros, for both national and cross-border transactions, beginning July 1, 2002.
- Charges for credit transfers (up to €12,500) between bank accounts to be the same, when denominated in euros, for both national and cross-border transactions, from July 1, 2003.
- Customers to be properly informed in advance of the charges they will incur when making national and cross-border payments. Any price changes would have to be notified in advance as well.
- Mandatory use of the ISO standard codes, namely IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code), in order to allow banks to process credit transfers in a fully automated way.
"This regulation will help consumers and small businesses to take full advantage of the Internal Market and the euro without having to pay through the nose for cross-border transactions," said Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein.
