BETTER FINANCE response to the public consultation on transparency and fees in cross-border transactions in the EU

The Regulation on cross-border payments equalised fees for cross-border and national payments in euro within the EU. However, payments involving currencies of EU Member States other than the euro are not covered by the Regulation, unless Member States extended the regulation to their national currency on a voluntary basis. The Regulation gives the option to Member States to equalise fees for cross-border transfers in the local currency and corresponding domestic transfers. So far, only Sweden chose to opt in and align these fees with euro transactions. In all other Member States, fees for cross-border transactions in non-euro currency remain very high, and well above the level of fees for purely national transactions in non-euro currencies. In particular, high minimum fees can make small transactions very expensive.

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