As it prepares to amend legislation on retail banking across the EU, the European Commission has launched a public consultation exercise on bank charges, and changing and opening basic bank accounts.
30m people do not have bank accounts
After the consultation process which closes in June, the Commission plans to propose new legislation by the end of this year, an EU official told The Times Business yesterday.
In its consultation document, the Commission states that consumers should be able to access retail banking throughout the European Union, irrespective of which country they live in. Consumers should be able to easily change the institution they bank with, even in another country.
Such consumer choice and accessibility requires comparable rules to be put in place, and increased transparency about bank account charges.
In recent years however, measures at national level have taken differing approaches and made little progress to achieve these aims, the Commission said.
“Consumers, therefore, have varying protection in different countries and this patchwork of rules, regulations and codes of conduct makes it difficult for people to open bank accounts abroad,” the consultation states.
With a view to improve transparency and make it easier to compare bank charges, the Commission makes a number of proposals, such as websites managed by the public authorities, simulations of standard costs to be provided by banks, and polls carried out by consumer groups.
Since the end of 2009, banks in the EU have been voluntarily using common standards for account mobility, which however do not apply to cards, overdrafts or savings accounts.
The Commission is examining the option of making the common standards compulsory across the EU.
According to Commission estimates, some 30 million adults in the EU did not have any bank accounts in 2010. Banks refused to open accounts for up to seven million people.
The Commission said that several member states have not yet submitted information about measures they have taken to act on its recommendation on access to basic accounts which came into force last January.