Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-08-Speech-1-173"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20100308.18.1-173"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, my predecessor as Chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee brought a resolution on SEPA to this Chamber on 12 March 2009. Not much has changed and now I bring mine here in March 2010. Can I say that we really do expect progress before the Ides of March 2011.
The Commission has made an effort in its SEPA roadmap of September 2009. We agree with the actions in the six priority areas, but a large majority of the respondents of the Commission’s own consultation said that it was necessary to fix an end date in order to incentivise the reluctant. Those are the Commission’s own words. Now, you cannot put it any straighter than that, and we suggest that the binding end date be fixed for no later than 31 December 2012.
We live in times when there are increasing numbers of cross-border purchases and contracts. Having common standards for these cross-border payments, credit transfers and direct debits is an important part of the health and growth of the single market. It is much better for consumers when they do not have to check whether there are different arrangements from country to country or get caught out because there are.
So consumers are not unfavourable to this project, but they do have to have security, and it is a worry if there are not sufficient safeguards for the management and checking of the mandate of direct debits. Payment systems take up one third of the operating costs of banks so there is a lot in it for banks to get SEPA right, but they cannot have it all their own way. The European Payments Council must recognise that consumers are worried about frauds and confidence tricks, and who is looking out for them. Some busy people may not notice a new transaction, especially if the amount is a common one. Therefore, there must be possibilities for the consumer to have extra safeguards around the setting up of direct debits. It is no good to say that banks will pick up all the frauds. Banks have not picked up fraudulent cheque practices. For example, in France, there have been problems with back-of-cheque endorsement frauds on cheques made out to a bank being paid into a third-party account. This has happened four years after the UK Financial Services Authority closed that loophole. It is not satisfactory to solve these problems with add-ons or additional offers of services which do not protect everyone. That is the fraudster’s charter. It is not satisfactory to be done country by country. That is the cross-border fraudster’s charter.
So, Commissioner, we look to you to be firm, fix these problems and come forward with solutions for SEPA direct debits by 30 September 2010.
This year should see a significant increase in the use of SEPA by public authorities, so the moment is right to press forward, especially asking Member States that have not made plans to participate in the surveys. We also ask that those – or maybe it is that – Member State that has not solved the problem of continuing legal validity of existing direct debit mandates to get on with it and solve the problem. Perhaps the other main stumbling block is the multilateral interchange fee for card payments and, again, this needs resolving in a way that is also in accord with competition policy.
These are important issues and, Commissioner, we say that the moment has come to be firm and set an end date so that we can successfully migrate to SEPA and make this project – which is very important for the single market – truly take off."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples