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.