Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-08-Speech-1-175"

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"Mr President, Commissioner, I do not doubt your determination, and you have, in the points that you have just covered, already answered most of the questions we were going to ask and that are raised by this resolution. I will simply remind you that the difficulty of the subject stems from the fact that the single euro payments area (SEPA) is an initiative of payment institutions, particularly banks. Also, may I say that the purpose of the directive on payment services, for which I had the honour of being rapporteur, was specifically designed to enable us to identify and define the legal instruments needed in order to put this European payments system in place. Another purpose of the directive was to improve competition in the area of payments, and Title II made provision for the creation of payment institutions, which were intended to break the monopoly of the banks. This complicated beginning certainly explains part of the delay, but it is certainly also true, as you have said, that payment services establishments – that is, banks – have demonstrated a certain reluctance to implement this mechanism. There is an explanation: the cost. I am sure you already know this, but to give you an idea: in France, for example, the cost of implementing SEPA is higher than that of changing to the euro. There has also been the matter of interchange fees, which deserves to be tackled. There are two issues involved. The first, as you mentioned, is that of conformity to the rules of competition, but the second issue, which must not be neglected, is that the payment service is a commercial activity for payment institutions which must, therefore, be fairly remunerated. What has been condemned is the possibility of setting interbank margins unilaterally, arbitrarily and without consultation, when these rightly appear excessive. Commissioner, we are counting on you to ensure that the progress we have made with the creation of a single-payments market can result in the swift implementation of European tools for transfers and direct debits."@en1
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