Europe Seeks Creation of Unified Credit Card Clearing System

By Carter Dougherty, International Herald Tribune

The European Commission on Tuesday announced plans to force the creation of a single payment clearing system for credit and debit cards across the 25-nation European Union, expressing frustration at industry foot-dragging that ends up costing consumers money in banking fees.

Charlie McCreevy, the European commissioner for the internal market, said he would propose legislation by October for a EU-wide framework to make cross-border payments as easy at the European level as they currently are within countries.

McCreevy also criticized the European financial services industry, which set up a body called the European Payments Council several years ago to devise a voluntary initiative, for failing to follow through quickly enough.

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