According to the FBF, the regulation in question establishes new technical and pricing requirements for SEPA credit transfers and direct debits, leading the French National SEPA Committee (which coordinates the implementation of European payment systems in France) to express very strong concerns.
The same FBF statement indicates that “French banks are displeased to see such provisions put in place now that the SEPA payment scheme has already been launched. SEPA credit transfers have been in effect since January 2008 and direct debts since November 2010. Certain details which had already been defined are now called into question. Furthermore, the European Commission reserves the right to make other changes at its own discretion. This kind of instability generates operational problems and additional costs for all economic operators.”
The European Commission also wants to prohibit the remuneration of interbank services, without proposing another viable economic model. In such case, consumers banks could no longer be compensated easily and transparently for services rendered to creditors banks, thus undermining the very principle of the interbank system as we know it, with all of its advantages in terms of quality of customer service, pricing transparency and general transaction security.
Within the framework of the talks set to begin on the draft regulation, the FBF is once again asking the Commission to maintain an interchange mechanism for SEPA direct debits and to eliminate the newly proposed technical requirements.
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