Οι νέοι κανόνες των διασυνοριακών μεταφορών κεφαλαίων σε ευρώ και των υπηρεσιών πληρωμών βάσει της Οδηγίας SEPA (2007/64/ΕΚ)

Abstract

In November 2007 the European Parliament adopted the Directive 2007/64/EC on payment services in the internal market, also known as the PSD (Payment Services Directive). The Directive aims to create the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), an area where cross-border fund transfers in euro will assimilate to the national payments in terms of facility, security and cost. It forms part of the Lisbon Agenda and regulates globally the payment services in order to create a harmonized and coherent legal framework for all EU countries, replacing the existing one, judged as fragmentary and insufficient. Although SEPA involves payments effected in euro, the PSD’s provisions bind all EU Member States, weather they belong in the Eurozone or not.The Directive sets the rules that govern the contractual relationship between the payment service provider and the payment service user, notably the information and transparency requirements and the respective rights and obligations of the parties. It establishes the principle of transparency of conditions and lays down extensive information requirements, prior and following the execution of a payment transaction. In reference to the rights and obligations of the parties related to the provision and use of payment services, the PSD appoints brief execution time, common for national and cross-border payments and accurately defines when the time-limits start counting. In addition, the liability of both the user and the provider in cases of erroneous execution of a payment transaction is explicitly determined, as well as the charges levied.The EU legislator innovated when provisioned a new category of providers, the Payment Institutions. These are allowed to execute restricted payment transactions for which an authorization is required, and are subject to prudential supervision.The European Payments Council (EPC), as the representative of the banks of the Eurosystem, has an active participation in creating SEPA. The EPC undertook the designing and the realization of the new payment instruments, by means of which payments will be effected according to the services, and shouldered the burden of planning and implementing SEPA. Thanks to its efforts, the new SEPA compliant payment instruments are at the public’s disposal since January 2008. The new pan-3European payment instruments will coexist until 2010 with the existing national ones. The latter will gradually be fully replaced by the SEPA compliant payment instruments, which will be indiscriminately used in both national and cross-border payments. SEPA comprehends three essential categories of payment services: credit transfers, direct debits and payments by card. The main feature of these services is their being processed fully automatically and electronically, using standardized methods. For this purpose, besides the payment services, it is imperative that the payment systems converge into EU-wide operational pan-European systems as well.The safety of the European payment market under the influence of SEPA is ensured by the implementation of the principles on banking supervision set out by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which greatly influenced the EU legislator.The above-mentioned initiative of the European Commission in collaboration with the European Central Bank and the European Payments Council intends to establish even further the European integration, long wished yet never fully accomplished.