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Payment services enable digital payments through direct debits, credit transfers or payments with cards or similar devices. Within the EU, these are regulated through the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which sets rules for payment services, their providers and consumer protection. Announced in September 2021 under the digital finance strategy and the retail payments strategy, the Commission published two proposals on the revision of PSD2 on 28 June 2023 as part of the financial data access ...

This briefing analyses the quality of the IA accompanying the Commission’s proposal to transmit payment service providers’ data to the national tax authorities of the EU Member States in order to combat cross-border e-commerce VAT fraud. The IA focuses on the economic impacts, namely the potential recovery of VAT loss by Member States, which is expected to outweigh the costs of the initiative (even though benefits and costs could not be quantified with certainty). Regional divergences are acknowledged ...

Cross-border payments are crucial for the integration of the EU economy, and play an important role in ensuring that citizens and enterprises from all EU Member States enjoy the same rights offered by the single market. Since the introduction of the euro, the EU has launched various initiatives to reduce the cost of cross-border transactions, among them a set of single euro payments area (SEPA) standards, regulations on cross-border payments, and the Payment Services Directives. Nevertheless, cross-border ...

Speculation on Bitcoin, the evolution of money in the digital age, and the underlying blockchain technology are attracting growing interest. In the context of the Eurosystem, this briefing paper analyses the legal nature of privately issued virtual currencies (VCs), the implications of VCs for central bank’s monetary policy and monopoly of note issue, and the risks for the financial system at large. The paper also considers some of the proposals concerning central bank issued virtual currencies. ...

Directive 2011/7/EU on late payments in commercial transactions (Late Payment Directive, (LPD)) strengthened European regulations first introduced in 2000 in favour of creditors. In addition to statutory interest, the application of which is still not automatic, maximum periods were established for payments in business-to-business transactions and those with public authorities, limiting contractual freedom, which is often abused by stronger companies. Following the largely correct transposition into ...

While the overall argument in favour of cheaper cross-border payments across the euro and non-euro Member States appears sensible, this impact assessment could have been stronger in terms of discussing the specifics of the financial infrastructure in non-euro Member States and the shortcomings of the cross-border payments market related to these specifics. A more detailed comparison of options including the economic impacts (particularly as related to SMEs) would have been helpful, as would be a ...

In response to a sharp increase in the number of people trying to migrate to Europe illegally, and as part of the mid-term review of the European Investment Bank's external lending mandate (ELM), the Commission proposed an external investment plan to tackle the root causes of migration from countries neighbouring the European Union, consisting of a European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) and quantitative and qualitative changes to the ELM. These changes entailed two legislative proposals ...

The IA presents the problem of non-cash payment fraud in a coherent and clear manner. The link between the problem (sub-) drivers, specific and general objectives of the proposal is rather straightforward. The objectives could be more specific and time-bound, however, to bring them in line with the SMART criteria. The IA sets out the content of all options in a clear manner. However, the quality of data, analysis and stakeholder consultation leaves an overall poor impression, partly because the combined ...

Council Framework Decision 2001/413 (CFD) on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment establishes minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and sanctions related to fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment, as well as the mechanisms for cross-border cooperation and exchange of information. Adopted in 2001, the CFD is now 16 years old. Evidence collected through the Commission’s evaluation and stakeholder consultation confirms the existence of ...

Every year, 1 million small businesses in the EU face problems with collecting cross-border debts, and as much as €600 million in cross-border claims are never satisfied. Domestic orders for payment, which exist in many Member States, are an effective tool for the collection of domestic debts, but often are not practical for cross-border use. Therefore, in order to supplement the existing national measures, the EU legislature has created a European Order for Payment procedure which is available for ...