EBA starts work to standardise fee terminology for payment accounts across the EU
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published its Final Guidelines on standardised fee terminology for EU payment accounts in the EU. These guidelines are the first step towards developing standardised terminology across the EU. They are developed in accordance with the EU Payment Accounts Directive, which requires standardisation of terminology for services that are found to be common in at least a majority of Member States. These Guidelines have been finalised following a two-month consultation period that ended in January 2015.
The EBA Guidelines will guide Competent Authorities (CAs) in EU Member States in the development of provisional lists of the most representative payment accounts services that are subject to a fee. EU competent authorities at national level will now be required to establish a provisional list of the most representative services of a payment account that are subject to a fee and offered by at least one Payment Service Provider(PSP) in their own jurisdictions.
Those lists should include at least 10, but no more than 20, of the most representative services and the EBA Guidelines describe procedures, as well as factors to be taken into consideration, when drawing up these lists. As foreseen by the EU Payment Accounts Directive, CAs will base their selection on two criteria: the services that are most commonly used by consumers in relation to their payment account, and that generate the highest cost for consumers, both overall, as well as per unit.
The lists established by CAs will in turn assist the EBA in developing standardised terminology that will be applicable across the EU single market and will be the basis for two new information EBA documents: the Fee Information Document and the Statement of Fees, which are expected to be ready for public consultations by 2016.
Note to the editors
The EU Payment Accounts Directive seeks to standardise the most relevant terminology for payment accounts across the EU and provides for the creation of templates to be used by EU payment services providers for presenting certain fee information to EU customers.
Legal basis
These Guidelines have been developed according to Article 3(2) of the Payment Accounts Directive. They were launched for a public consultation which ended in January 2015 and will become applicable after their publication in the official languages of the EU.
Documents
Guidelines
(416.88 KB - PDF) Last update 23 March 2015
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