Discussions underway today it is the outcome seems

At the end of the period of one month which was allotted them, almost all the banks have appealed the sanction of 384 million euros that the competition authority imposed them have collected inter-bank commissions on cheques. But the decision will have been exactly the desired effect: drive it in the discussion of the other complaints dealt with by the authority on the cost of transactions for all means of payment in France, and primarily the bank card. A practice they have always, in contrast to the commissions on the cheques. "We do not exclude of convergence", confirms a close source from the folder. "The banks believe that it would be more constructive to a revision of the current device", said another. "We must stop ferrailler on trials of intention, by finding with the authorities a modus vivendi satisfactory legally and economically", said a third.

The issue In 2009 alone, approximately 1.5 billion euros of commissions on bank cards have been imposed by banks and reflected on the distributors of the complaint filed in early 2009. But, beyond the maps, they are all interbank fees collected on the means of payment which are referred, including samples.

At the announcement of record assent on cheques, the authority had sent a clear signal to the banks. It warned that it arbitrerait the complaint of distributors as early as 2011, either within two years, while it had instructed the first eight years. And the reading of the decision of the authority on cheques left little room for doubt. Banks were encouraged to make amends and to enter into a "procedure of commitment". This provision, created in 2004, allows them to negotiate a lack of punishment in return for a reform of the impugned practices. Discussions underway today, it is the outcome seems.

Unlike the complaint on the committees on cheques, the competition authority does not in this folder the principle of perception of these costs. In criticism however their amount. "The problem is that these commissions have not budged since 1990, following an injunction of the Council of competition already;" "but the costs are since widely amortized", explains a part.

Find a perennial system

A finding partially accepted by the banks, which recognize the need to "Refresh" these commissions. They themselves so ready to compromise but "extraordinary reduction". " "The commissions paid by the merchants are very low, order enough from 0.5 to 1, and of 3 as it is advanced," explained a banker.

Once the new cursor set, hope they find a perennial system of calculation of the commissions which is outside regular questions. The Direction of the competition in Brussels, in a similar case, had opted for "tourist test", a comparison of the costs of treatment of the map with one of the species. These findings have lowered the commissions of Mastercard and Visa but are subject to appeal.

"Avoid that, with this complaint, the French inter-bank system is destabilised and gives the advantage to custodial solutions which penalize the shopkeepers", judge still a banker. In fact, it is all the history of this record for twenty-six years (read below). Side controller, however, that primera, "it will be the terms of appointment, those who missed the folder of the cheques", indicates an observer.