Representatives of the banking and payments industry meeting on
Thursday discussed with the Commission, the European Parliament,
European Central Bank, consumers and retailers technical
innovations to improve the speed of automatic cross-border credit
transfers and how best to direct future developments in credit
card, internet, mobile phone and on-line banking.
In terms of traditional payment systems, the Commission
acknowledges that the costs of cross-border transfers are still too
high, though the situation is improving. The Commission nonetheless
warned the banking industry that it was monitoring progress closely
and would publish a study next year on the implementation of the
Cross-Border Credit Transfer Directive. This will be the basis for
considering a series of new proposals in the autumn of 2001 to
improve traditional payments systems.
Commission policymakers are increasingly concerned to ensure
that legislation keeps up with developments in the field of
electronic payments. The Commission is already committed to the
publication shortly of a Green Paper on E-Commerce and Financial
Services, which will pay particular attention to internet
payments.
