2 12 December 2008

News:

The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament will vote on whether to adopt a number of changes to the European Commission's proposal for a new E-Money Directive (COD/2008/0190) on 11 February.

The European Commission is inviting applications from payments experts to become part of a Payment Systems Market Expert Group (PSMEG) by 6 February. The PSMEG will assist the Commission in the preparation of legislative acts or policy initiatives regarding payment systems, including fraud prevention. It will provide insight concerning practical implementation of policy and will exchange views on best practice.

The European Payments Council (EPC) released version 3.2 of its SEPA Core Direct Debit Rulebook on 7 January, which contains rules on the use of e-mandates to facilitate Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) compliant direct debits.

Features:

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), the panEuropean initiative to create a zone in which all electronic payments in euro are considered domestic, started in January 2008 with the launch of SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), the first of three SEPA initiatives. The SCT will allow euro credit transfers to be made in a standard order format with a reduced execution time. In January 2008, the second SEPA element - SEPA for Cards - was also started, allowing banks to begin to distribute, issue and acquire SEPA Cards Framework (SCF) compliant payment cards.

Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, has announced proposals for stricter regulation of credit rating agencies (CRAs), despite amendments made to a voluntary code of conduct for CRAs by the International Organization of Securities Commissions. Patrick Keown, Head of Corporate Banking at Hill Dickinson LLP, examines why stricter regulation of CRAs has been proposed, perceived flaws in the industry's business model and the EU's proposed solutions to these issues.

Every financial institution in Brazil is regulated through the Banking Act, while foreign financial institutions also require special authorisation by government decree. Rodrigo d'Avila Mariano, a Partner with Pinheiro Neto Advogados, examines the application of the Banking Act and foreign exchange control regulations to internet banking, as well as the limitations placed on electronic contracts under Brazilian legislation.

New proposals issued by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for the regulation of retail banking conduct of business means more statutory regulation for banks and building societies in the UK. The new mandatory framework will replace, with some exceptions, most of the content of the current voluntary Banking Code. Robert Robinson, of Deloitte LLP, examines the FSA's proposed areas of change.

Payment card fraud historically involved theft of a card, however is increasingly migrating online, where often only the card number and expiry date are needed to carry out a transaction. Peter Welch, an independent management consultant, examines the scale of payment card fraud both nationally and internationally, and efforts by banks to implement additional security measures without deterring the customer from completing the transaction.

New credit card rules to protect consumers from unfair credit card acts or practices were published on 18 December. Donald J Mosher and Jessica Sklute, of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, examine the rules.

Online 'penny auction' sites allow bidders to win expensive items at a price that appears unbelievably cheap, however users are charged by the site for each bid that they place. Dr. Mark Griffiths, a Professor of Gambling Studies at Nottingham Trent University, examines how 'penny auction' sites operate, and whether they should be regulated.