European Parliament urges speed-up of cross border financial services (Diana Wallis MEP)

Diana Wallis MEP <info@dianawallismep.org.uk>

European Parliament urges speed-up of cross border financial services

October 4, 2001 12:00 AM

The European Parliament today backed the speedy opening up of the European market for financial services on the internet.

In an overwhelming vote, the Parliament called on the EU Commission to ensure that financial companies - banks, pension providers, insurers and unit trust operators - could offer their services over the internet in all member states.

Yorkshire and the Humber's Lib Dem Euro-MP, Diana Wallis, said that consumers would benefit from more competition, higher quality and lower prices if the obstacles to Internet financial services were torn down.

Diana Wallis MEP said:

"The financial services sector should be a big winner from e-commerce because it does not have problems of physical delivery like book sellers or supermarkets.

"Many transactions in banking and stockbrokerage are already taking place on-line. UNICE, the EU employers' organisation, estimates that nearly a fifth of banking transactions in Europe are now executed through the internet, direct dial, mobile phone or digital television; nearly double the US level.

"However, the vast majority of those transactions happen within an EU member state. Cross-border e-commerce is in its infancy, and it has not chased prices down to the level of the cheapest member state. Indeed, the most recent survey suggests that bank charges vary more widely around the average than they did in the mid-eighties at the beginning of the single market programme. There is a lot still to do.

"I do not, of course, underestimate some real difficulties. The Commission needs to look at these difficulties carefully, and attempt to set out a clear road map to allow e-commerce in financial services to flourish.

"Consumers are still concerned about security, particularly with cross-border transactions and the high cost of payments. Soft law provisions -alternative dispute procedures - should be made effective so that they can deal with the vast majority of problematic cases. And some convergence of national rules on consumer contracts is clearly desirable, though this should not be used as an excuse to delay the single market.

"We have also called on the Commission to look at agreements with countries outside Europe that have high supervisory standards for their financial institutions with a view to encouraging e-commerce with them."