Consultation on Guidelines aimed at standardisation of fee terminology for payment accounts in the EU

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a consultation paper on Guidelines on national provisional lists of the most representative services linked to a payment account and subject to a fee. The EU Payment Accounts Directive requires the EBA to develop standardised terminology and information documents related to payment accounts for consumers across the EU. As a first step, the EBA has developed Guidelines to help Competent Authorities identify the most representative services linked to a payment account and subject to a fee in their jurisdictions. The consultation will run until 9 January 2015. The technical standards that will subsequently be developed will allow EU consumers to make better informed decisions when choosing their payment accounts.

The draft Guidelines published today by the EBA aim to assist Competent Authorities (CAs) across the EU in their task of identifying fee based services in payment accounts, as set out in the Payment Accounts Directive. This foresees that standardisation of terminology at EU-level starts with services that are common to a majority of Member States.

CAs are 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 Providers (PSP) in their own jurisdictions. Lists should include at least 10, but no more than 20, of the most representative services and the draft Guidelines developed by the EBA aim to ensure the sound application of the criteria in the Payments Account Directive, and establish how CAs should apply them, what factors they should take into consideration, how they should report their list, and what supportive data should be obtained.

The Payment Accounts Directive foresees that CAs take into consideration 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.

These lists will be functional to the work of the EBA in developing EU-level standardisation of the terminology. The lists received by CAs will then be incorporated in two new information documents to be developed by the EBA: the Fee Information Document and the Statement of Fees. Separate consultations on these documents will follow in 2015.

Consultation process

Comments to this consultation can be sent to the EBA by clicking on the "send your comments" button on the consultation page. Please note that the deadline for the submission of comments is 9 January 2015.

Note to the editors

The Payment Accounts Directive [2014/92/EU] was published in the Official Journal on 28 August 2014. It states that it is important for consumers to be able to understand fees, so that they may be able to compare offers from different payment service providers and make informed decisions as to which payment account is most suitable for their needs. To that end, establishing the provisional lists of at least 10 and no more than 20 of the most representative services, linked to a payment account and subject to a fee, is a first step to achieving a standardised terminology for the services linked to a payment account.