WRITTEN QUESTION P-2099/00 by Peter Skinner (PSE) to the Commission. Excessive cross-border transfer charges and cartel behaviour of banks in EU.
Date: 2000-06-16
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU control, bank, bank charges, capital transfer, competition law, euro, restrictive trade practice, transfer pricing

13.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 81 E/143

financial losses (cid:129) cannot be assessed until the legal inquiries currently under way in Sweden have been
wound up. However, the small sum referred to in the Honourable Member(cid:146)s question does not correspond
to the sums under examination in the framework of the inquiry.

The Commission would point out that the procedures initiated in this case (disciplinary proceedings
against the officials and dismissal of the local staff) are under way.

(1) COM(2000) 358 final.

(2001/C 81 E/175)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2099/00

by Peter Skinner (PSE) to the Commission

(16 June 2000)

Subject: Excessive cross-border transfer charges and cartel behaviour of banks in EU

Does the Commission regard the survey published on 23 May on cross-border transfer payments to be the
start of more detailed examination of the banking industry(cid:146)s poor record across the EU on charges to
citizens? Or does it intend to publish the long-awaited report on the alleged cartel behaviour of certain
banks as announced by former Commissioner Van Miert in September 1999 and now the responsibility of
Commissioner Monti? Would it not have been appropriate for the Commission to dovetail the work of this
report with the findings of the survey announced by Commissioners Byrne and Bolkestein on 23 May so
that we could have had a more complete picture?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(27 July 2000)

The question of excessive cross-border transfer charges is not a matter of competition policy but of the
internal market and competition. The Members of the Commission with responsibility for these policies
have asked the banks and the Member States to do more to reduce the level of bank charges to customers.

From the point of view of the competition rules, a bank is free to set its charges at any level provided that
it does so freely and independently. If consumers feel that the charges applied by one bank are too high
they will penalise it by taking their custom elsewhere. On the other hand, if the banks were to combine to
fix their charges, either to increase them or to maintain them at a high level, this would constitute a
serious violation of the Community rules on competition, since price-fixing agreements are against the
consumers(cid:146) interests.

At the beginning of 1999, immediately after the introduction of the euro, and following a large number of
complaints about the cost of cross-border transactions, the Member of the Commission responsible for
competition took the decision to launch a series of investigations in the eleven Member States participating
in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).

The purpose of these investigations is to establish whether the banks or banking federations or associations
had struck an agreement to fix the structure or level of bank charges paid by customers. The investigations
were concerned with several kinds of bank transactions, including exchanging banknotes and cross-border
transfers.

As regards exchanging banknotes, the Commission has just sent statements of objections to over a
hundred banking establishments and federations in four Member States. These statements of objections
present the documentary evidence gathered by the Commission which shows that these banks and banking
federations fixed charges for exchanging banknotes and coins. Other statements of objections concerning
the same type of operation will be sent to banks and banking federations in other Member States before
the summer.

On the question of cross-border transfers, the investigations, which involve the processing of a large mass
of information, are still in progress.