By editorial@silicon.com, 9 November 2000 17:35
NEWS In 2002, when euro notes and coins go into circulation, banks will have no excuses for not making cross-border payments cheaper and faster, he told a conference on payments organised by the European Commission. But a new Swift messaging standard, set to go live on 18 November, could pave the way for more efficient payments within Europe. There has been little progress in the eight years since the European Commission published its report Easier Cross Border payments: Breaking down the Barriers. Europe's banks have complained that demand for cross-border services is too low to justify the investment needed to implement them. Cross-border payments only account for between 0.5 per cent and 4 per cent of total payments. But consumer groups argue that demand is low because the costs and complexities of making payments has deterred small businesses from using them. Cross-border payments can cost up to 20 times more than a domestic funds transfer. Swift announced its new message type, MT103, in March last year. In theory, it should ease cross-border payments in three ways. It contains more transaction information, making messages easier to process automatically; it includes all the information required by banks and regulators; and, it was designed from the start with end-to-end processing in mind. When MT103 goes live at the end of next week, all member banks have to be able to process the new message type, though they will not be obliged to issue MT103-based messages until the existing standard is withdrawn in 2003. By Candice Goodwin
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below