EC To Study Bank Account Mobility

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

19 May 2006

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it is to create an expert group on customer mobility in relation to bank accounts.

In particular, the group will identify any legal, administrative or other obstacles that customers encounter when opening, closing or switching bank accounts at both domestic and cross-border level, and will advise the Commission on how those obstacles can be addressed.

This is a follow-up action to the White Paper on Financial Services Policy 2005-2010, and is part of the Better Regulation agenda.

The group will be composed of experts proposed by European or national associations, who represent customer or financial services industry interests, and of individuals with an academic background in the area. Interested associations and academics are invited to send applications to the Commission before 16 June 2006.

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy explained that:

"A bank account is often a prerequisite to accessing a whole array of other financial products, such as loans and investments. Most customers get these services from the bank where they have their bank account. So for customers to have access to the best products, they need to be able to switch bank accounts easily."

"However, in practice customers often face difficulties when they try do so. This expert group will help us to identify these obstacles to customer mobility and the best ways to address them. This should help create a more competitive environment."

The possibility of switching bank accounts cross-border will become even more important in January 2008 when the first SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) products are scheduled to be introduced, which will make cross-border payments as easy, cheap and secure as payments at domestic level.

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