- New rules set to affect countries which don’t use the euro as their currency but which are in the wider European Union bloc
- The latest changes will be followed by a new set of rules designed to help cross-compare charges on bank cards
- “These rules will allow all our citizens and companies to equally benefit from cheap cross-border euro payments”, a spokesperson said
A new set of rules recently released by the European Union aims to tackle high fees in the cross border payments world for certain European nations.
The new rules, which affect member states of the bloc which do not use the euro as their currency, will specify that the cost of cross border payments made using the single currency will not cost any more than domestic payments would.
The development will be followed up by a move in April of next year to ensure that consumers have the resources to cross-compare the charges they will face when making international money transfer payments on cards.
A range of major European economies fall into this category, and hence will be affected by the change.
The UK, which currently remains a member of the EU despite its vote to leave, is one of these economies.
Others on the list of affected nations include Denmark, Bulgaria, Iceland and Hungary.
Croatia, Czechia, Norway and Poland will be affected too, and Liechtenstein, Romania and Sweden complete the list.
According to a press statement from the European Commission, the new developments will be closely watched to ensure that there are no implementation errors once the new rules come into force.
“The Commission will closely monitor the application of these rules, and will liaise closely with competent national authorities to ensure that they are implemented correctly”, the statement read.
A senior European official named Valdis Dombrovskis, who is an executive vice-president responsible for an economy that works for people, said that it was an example of the “real benefits” which European institutions can offer.
“These rules will allow all our citizens and companies to equally benefit from cheap cross-border euro payments”, he said.
“This is a positive and concrete example of how the Single Market can bring real benefits to European consumers.
“For instance, a family in Romania that wants to send money in euro to their child doing an Erasmus exchange in Paris will no longer have to factor in additional costs, as they will now be paying the same fee as for a domestic transaction in Romania”, he added.
The remittances proposal has been on the cards for a long time.
It was first floated in March 2018, with the European Commission announcing that it wanted to amend the rules.
However, it ultimately came from a proposal in the Consumer Financial Services Action Plan, which came out in 2017.
To learn more about the cross border payments world and to find out the latest news and updates, check out this link.
