EU to unionize cross-border payments

international paymentEarlier this year, the European Commission published the Consumer Financial Service Action Plan. Its objective is to improve transparency, and to address price inequalities in cross–border payments in currencies other than the Euro.

Currently, the Single Euro Payment Area (“SEPA”) Regulation harmonizes all cross–border electronic payments, and ensures that all bank transfers denominated in Euro are subject to the same conditions as domestic payments.

A public consultation is now gathering feedback from interested stakeholders. The consultation is open until end October 2017. We expect a legislative proposal to follow at the beginning of 2018, which will aim at removing the remaining barriers in the single market for financial services, and enhance competition amongst financial service providers within the EU.