mr president my predecessor as chair of the economic and monetary affairs committee brought a resolution on sepa to this chamber on twelve march two thousand and nine
not much has changed and now i bring mine here in march twenty ten
can i say that we really do expect progress before the ides of march twenty eleven
the commission has made an effort in its sepa roadmap of september two thousand and nine
we agree with the actions in the six priority areas but a large majority of the respondents of the commission's own consultation said that it was necessary to fix an end date in order to incentivise the reluctant
those are the commission's own words
now you cannot put it any straighter than that and we suggest that the binding end date be fixed for no later than thirty-one december twenty twelve
we live in times when there are increasing numbers of cross-border purchases and contracts
having common standards for these cross-border payments credit transfers and direct debits is an important part of the health and growth of the single market
it is much better for consumers when they do not have to check whether there are different arrangements from country to country or get caught out because there are
so consumers are not unfavourable to this project but they do have to have security and it is a worry if there are not sufficient safeguards for the management and checking of the mandate of direct debits
payment systems take up one third of the operating costs of banks so there is a lot in it for banks to get sepa right but they cannot have it all their own way
the european payments council must recognise that consumers are worried about frauds and confidence tricks and who is looking out for them
some busy people may not notice a new transaction especially if the amount is a common one
therefore there must be possibilities for the consumer to have extra safeguards around the setting up of direct debits
it is no good to say that banks will pick up all the frauds
banks have not picked up fraudulent cheque practices
for example in france there have been problems with back-of-cheque endorsement frauds on cheques made out to a bank being paid into a third-party account
this has happened four years after the uk financial services authority closed that loophole
it is not satisfactory to solve these problems with add-ons or additional offers of services which do not protect everyone
that is the fraudster's charter
it is not satisfactory to be done country by country
that is the cross-border fraudster's charter
so commissioner we look to you to be firm fix these problems and come forward with solutions for sepa direct debits by thirty september twenty ten
this year should see a significant increase in the use of sepa by public authorities so the moment is right to press forward especially asking member states that have not made plans to participate in the surveys
we also ask that those or maybe it is that member state that has not solved the problem of continuing legal validity of existing direct debit mandates to get on with it and solve the problem
perhaps the other main stumbling block is the multilateral interchange fee for card payments and again this needs resolving in a way that is also in accord with competition policy
these are important issues and commissioner we say that the moment has come to be firm and set an end date so that we can successfully migrate to sepa and make this project which is very important for the single market truly take off
