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Retail financial services (0)

Consumers protection (2)

Session 02 Key Issues for the Financial Industry

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264.49 Ko

09-11-2008

Summarized Text :

Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [2] - Plenary: KEY ISSUES FOR THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY IN TODAY’S CONTEXT The Panel Opening remarks: Didier Cahen; Secretary General, Eurofi Moderators: Jacques de Larosière & Daniel Lebègue; Co-Presidents, Eurofi Panelists: Pervenche Bérès, MEP, Chairwoman, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament; Meglena Kuneva, EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection; David Vegara, President of the Financial Services Committee, Spanish Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. Karl-Peter Schackman Fallis, Executive Member of the Board, German Savings Banks Association; Georges Pauget, Chief Executive Officer, Credit Agricole SA; Edmond Alphandery, Chairman of the board of CNP Assurance

Tags : Consumers protection,

Type : Event Report

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Consumer protection [EN]

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221.82 Ko

06-06-2006

Summarized Text :

Consumer protection workshop
Executive summary:
There is at present a patchwork of national consumer protection regimes for consumer credit in particular that creates specific legal conditions for operating in each European market.
This situation is considered by most multinational or global players to hinder their ability to sell similar products across Europe and therefore to obtain economies of scale and is rarely justified by very specific consumer needs.

The current attempts to harmonise European legislation related to consumer protection can be considered as steps in the right direction but have not been sufficient yet to develop an integrated market, as they still allow for major divergences between legislations.

Targeted full harmonisation (ie full harmonisation of the main dispositions that are necessary to guarantee an adequate level of consumer protection adapted to the average needs of EU consumers while enabling the industry to develop synergies and cross-border business) appears to be an adequate solution for many industry players and observers in particular for consumer credit, mortgages and savings. However the scope of topics selected for harmonisation and the degree of precision required for harmonising dispositions on these topics needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Further harmonisation of EU consumer protection laws would benefit consumers in several ways:
- Industry players would be able to increase synergies leading to potential economies of scale and price reductions
- Foreign players would be able to access new markets completing the range of local products and increasing competition which could put pressure on prices.

As an example, industry players consider that the modified version of the consumer credit directive goes in the right direction of focused harmonisation identifying 7 main themes to be harmonized:
- Advertising
- Pre-contractual information
- Contractual information
- Definition and calculation of interest rates
- Right of withdrawal
- Linked credits
- Early repayment
Full harmonisation would require the directive to be more precise on certain topics and to modify a certain number of dispositions of the present proposal on these 7 themes taking into account the constraints and needs of financial institutions and distributors...

Tags : Consumers protection,

Type : Executive summary

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Microcredit (1)

EUROFI PRIORITIES FOR ECOFIN

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115.97 Ko

10-09-2008

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Eurofi, the dedicated think-tank for the integration of financial services in Europe, is organizing a conference on September 11 and 12 to discuss the proposals put forward by the financial industry at the ECOFIN, set against a global crisis with leaders facing new challenges.

This crisis shows that the supervision of cross-border financial groups must be adapted in order to factor in the rapid spillover of risks, the internationalization of their activities and the centralized organization of their financial management and strategy.
That is why Eurofi is proposing a series of pragmatic measures to improve the supervision of these groups and the prevention of crises, notably including:
- The establishment of colleges grouping the European supervisors concerned together, which would be given a similar mandate in order to ensure identical protection for all of the group’s European customers;
- A specific role entrusted to the supervisor from the home European country, ensuring that decisions relating to capital requirements and the organization of supervision can be taken quickly and effectively, and that information is immediately made available to all the other supervisors;
- The mission entrusted to the European supervisor committees (CEBS and CEIOPS), to facilitate the resolution of possible differences of views between supervisors from a given college and check that the conditions for fair competition between the financial institutions are brought about.

Tags : CEIOPS, Occupational Pensions, Solvency II directive, Microcredit, UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS, Cross-border fund processing, Prudential rules, Accounting rules, CEBS, Regulation, Supervision,

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Competition (5)

Session 03C SEPA-Card payments

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198.07 Ko

09-11-2008

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Eurofi 2008 – Thursday 11/09/08 Session [3C] CARD PAYMENTS: AN UNDERUSED OPPORTUNITY: Innovative National Authorities’ initiatives - Conditions for an equitable balance among different stake holders.
The Panel Moderator: Wouter de Ploey, Director in McKinsey & Company’s Antwerp office, and Leader of McKinsey’s European Payments Practice. Panellists: Fabrice Denèle, Head of Interbank Relations, Caisse Nationale d’Epargne (CNCE) Steve Perry, Executive Vice-President, Relationship Management, Sales and Commercial Development, Visa Europe Irmfried Schwimann, Acting Director & Head of Unit Antitrust, Financial Services, DG Competition, European Commission Narinda Viguier, Director of Strategy and Interbank relations at Cedicam, part of the Credit Agricole group

The Debate Introducing the session, Wouter de Ploey, Director in McKinsey & Company’s Antwerp office, and Leader of McKinsey’s European Payments Practice, said the key issue was how to develop the card market in Europe, especially in terms of innovation, setting up the market, cross border contacts and initiatives that might be needed from regulators or government to enable these things to happen.

Tags : Cash, Competition, MIF, Cards, Internet payments,

Type : Event Report

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Session 03D Cross-Border retail Financial Services

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198.66 Ko

09-11-2008

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Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [3D] PROSPECTS FOR CROSS-BORDER RETAIL FINANCIAL SERVICES AND POTENTIAL BENEFITS FOR RETAIL CUSTOMERS. Where is Europe in the construction of the single retail financial market? What has been achieved? What are consumer expectations? What is the agenda of the Commission, and the European Parliament? What are the priorities for the next ten to fifteen years? What are the best tools for greater integration and better harmonisation in retail financial services?
The Panel
Moderator: Daniel Lebègue, Co-Chairman, Eurofi Panellists: Elemer Terták, Director, Financial Institutions, DG Internal Market & Services, European Commission Giuseppe Zadra, Director General, Italian Banking Association Ieke van den Burg, MEP, Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament

The Debate
Elemer Terták, Director, Financial Institutions, DG Internal Market & Services, European Commission, said there was much to do in terms of integration in retail financial services. “Progress is not as good as we would hope. As we can see it has not reached its potential and competition in certain markets is suffering, particularly in areas such as payments and retail banking. European consumers are unable to take full advantage of the benefits of the single market.”

Tags : Competition, Regulation,

Type : Event Report

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Session 05C EU Priorities for Retail Payments

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167.8 Ko

09-11-2008

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Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [5C] - EU PRIORITIES FOR RETAIL PAYMENTS: Political impetus for reducing inefficient payment means and fostering innovation - Legal smoothing of individual’s migration toward SEPA direct debit - Creating a critical mass for SEPA payment schemes Current e-payment landscape – Mobile payment: hype or opportunity? E-mandate the key for an efficient use of SDD – e-invoicing: conditions for success

The Panel
Moderator: Leo Van Hove, Associate Professor of Economics, Vrij Universiteit Brussel Panellists: Jean-Paul Gauzès, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament Jean-Michel Godeffroy, Director General, Payment Systems and Market Infrastructure, European Central Bank (ECB) Jörgen Holmquist, Director General, Internal Market and Services, European Commission Erik Pointillard, Director of Retail Banking, Caisse Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne(CNCE) Irmfried Schwimann, Acting Director & Head of Antitrust, Financial Services, DG Competition, European Commission

The Debate
The session was designed to address issues of public policy surrounding SEPA, said Leo Van Hove, Associate Professor of Economics, Vrij Universiteit Brussel, in his introduction. What could EU and national institutions do to reduce the use of inefficient payment instruments? What could they do to reduce the use of cash? And could the public sector lead in creating critical mass for SEPA?
Irmfried Schwimann, Acting Director & Head of Antitrust, Financial Services, DG Competition, European Commission, said SEPA was a selfregulated project under which companies deemed to be in competition would enter into a collaborative arrangement. National competition authorities and DG Competition had identified a number of concerns, and many had been cleared up in discussions with the European Payments Council (EPC), but a few issues were “still on the table”. These were concerning governance, standards, and the interchange fee for direct debits.

Tags : Cash, Competition, MIF,

Type : Event Report

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SEPA Refocusing the aim

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609.92 Ko

06-06-2006

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Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA)
Refocusing the aim to achieve genuine across-the-board involvement

The aim of the European institutions is to establish an "integrated market for payment services which is subject to effective competition and where there is no distinction between cross-border and national payments within the euro area"
1. Three payment instruments are concerned
2: direct debits, credit transfers and debit cards. The process will take place in two stages: on 1 January 2008, euro area banks will start to provide users with the SEPA compliant euro payment instruments designed by the European Payments Council (EPC),
3 i.e. pan-European direct debit and credit transfer. By end-2010, the SEPA payment instruments are due to replace permanently all former domestic instruments.

1- 2008: a realistic technical deadline for banks (see Annex I) As a result of extensive work by the banking industry, EPC-defined direct debits and credit transfers will be available domestically and on a cross-border basis as from 2008. In order to create the required legal certainty, the draft of the EC Payment Systems Directive should also be adopted by that date. The market needs this Directive to ensure the European-wide legal basis for relations between participants, especially with regard to the new SEPA direct debit product. Regarding payment cards, the EPC has set the compliance requirements for schemes and payment service providers that want to provide services across the SEPA. These requirements can be met in various ways, allowing individual banks to choose the option that suits best their needs.

The introduction of SEPA compliant products will provide various benefits to endusers and providers, including standardisation of the execution time for cross-border credit transfers, a new pan-European direct debit product and a migration towards pan-European payment infrastructure standards. This standardisation will allow and encourage technical convergence of national systems. The timetable for this will be largely driven by national considerations related to the economics of the incumbent infrastructure (e.g. level of obsolescence or economic efficiency, possible pace of investment). It is expected that the number of payment infrastructures will reduce gradually – currently in excess of 25 – resulting, in the longer run, in a cost reduction for the providers of payment instruments. Multiple adjustments will be needed for systems, banks and their customers. At present, very few entities (utilities, government departments) believe that they will be able to make the necessary technical adjustments by 2008 as a result of the extensive efforts involved. In the end, it will be mainly market forces that will drive the move towards a more integrated and standardised payments environment.
1 Consultation Paper on SEPA Incentives, 13 February 2006
2 Most payment instruments cannot be used – or used as efficiently – in more than one Member State. Crossborder direct debits are impossible; timeframes for cross-border credit transfers vary considerably; national debit cards cannot be used outside the holder's home country; and the legal rules governing payments vary from one country to another.
3 Formed in 2002, the EPC is an interbank organisation composed of some fifty EU banks and three industry groups: the European Association of Cooperative Banks, the European Banking Federation, and the European Savings Banks Group...

Tags : Cash, Competition, Innovation, MIF, Infrastructure, Cards, Internet payments,

Type : Position paper

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SEPA - une ambition recentrée pour une mobilisation effective des acteurs

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284.62 Ko

06-06-2006

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SEPA - une ambition recentrée pour une mobilisation effective des acteurs

L’objectif des institutions européennes est de créer dans « la zone euro un marché intégré des paiements caractérisé par une compétition effective, et dans lequel il n’existe pas de distinction entre paiements transfrontaliers et paiements domestiques »
1. Trois instruments de paiement sont concernés
2 : le débit direct, le virement et la carte de débit. Les étapes sont les suivantes : au premier janvier 2008 les instruments définis au sein de l’EPC3 (débit direct et virement) sont mis à disposition des utilisateurs par les banques au sein de la zone euro (fin de phase d’implémentation) ; fin 2010 la substitution des anciens instruments par les moyens de paiement européens doit être irréversible.

1- 2008 : Une échéance réaliste sur le plan technique pour les banques (voir annexe I) Suite aux travaux techniques importants menés par la communauté bancaire, le Débit Direct et le Virement tels que définis par l’EPC seront disponibles sur le plan domestique et transfrontalier à l’échéance de 2008. Ceci dans la mesure où le projet de Directive « Systèmes de Paiement », dont le marché attend la base légale régissant les rapports entre les acteurs en particulier pour le débit direct européen, est adoptée et transposée d’ici là. En ce qui concerne la carte de paiement, les travaux de l’EPC établissent les conditions tarifaires d’adhésion et d’acceptation à remplir par les systèmes cartes, pour se prévaloir d’une dimension européenne. Ces conditions semblent aisément accessibles aux différents systèmes existants. Cette étape apportera des bénéfices aux utilisateurs : standardisation des délais pour les virements transfrontaliers, création d’un débit direct pan européen et constitution de standards pour l’industrie à même de favoriser une convergence technique des systèmes à organiser selon un rythme qui prenne en compte les contraintes des différents utilisateurs et des infrastructures locales (degré d’obsolescence ou d’efficacité économique ; rythme possible d’investissement). Cette échéance facilite une réduction progressive du nombre des infrastructures (aujourd’hui supérieur à 25) et en conséquence la réduction des coûts de production des moyens de paiement. Elle nécessite de multiples adaptations pour les systèmes, les banques et leurs clients. A ce jour peu d’entreprises (facturiers, administration publiques) pensent être en mesure de mettre en oeuvre d’ici 2008 les adaptations techniques compte tenu de la lourdeur des efforts à consentir. De façon générale et pour l’ensemble de ces raisons, la concrétisation des bénéfices attendus de cette étape, doit être conduite par les forces de marché.

1 Consultation paper on SEPA Incentives 13 Fev 2006
2 La plus part des instruments de paiement ne peuvent pas être utilisés d’un Etat membre à l’autre, ou pas dans les mêmes conditions d’efficacité : le débit direct de peut être utilisé sur le plan transfrontalier, les virements transfrontaliers sont exécutés dans des délais hétérogènes, les cartes de débit nationales de peuvent fonctionner au-delà des frontières, enfin, les règles juridiques appliqués aux paiements divergent d’un pays à l’autre
3 European Payment Cooucil : crée en 2002, cette instance interbancaire regroupe une cinquantaine de banques de l’Union européenne ainsi que les trois associations bancaires professionnelles (groupement européen des banques coopératives, fédération bancaire européenne, groupement européen des caisses d’épargne)...

Tags : Cash, Competition, Innovation, MIF, Infrastructure, Cards, Internet payments,

Type : Position paper

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Membership

Eurofi brings together financial institutions of different sizes and statutes: domestic and cross-border banks and insurance companies with different legal statutes, broker dealers, asset managers, market infrastructures... The members of Eurofi are companies based in the main EU countries as well as well as subsidiaries of US firms. Eurofi works with all the representative stakeholders involved in a given subject to help them solve issues or identify new ideas and interact with EU political decision makers and legislators.

Financial cross-border supervision, the Solvency II Directive, the review of the UCITS Directive and the new Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive, Accounting and Prudential rules to favour long term investment for example are major areas of focus of the work of Eurofi. The proposals made by Eurofi are presented to the main leaders of the EU authorities and discussed at the occasion of the Financial Forums organized by Eurofi"