Money matters: according to the Commission, states must ensure that it is always available
In Italy there is always talk of introducing the electronic payment system, seen as a sort of panacea for the state's problems. In reality, the last 20 years have revealed that this is not the case, that tax evasion, the serious type that moves billions of euros, occurs precisely with online transactions in foreign offices.
But the myth dies hard. Not only is there this ideological fight against cashiers, but, recently, cost cutting in the banking system which is progressively eliminating branches and ATM points where cash can be withdrawn.
This was brought to the attention of the Commission which responded, for once, in a useful way, through the voice of Vice-President Dombrovskis. Here is the answer to the problem :
As part of the work of the Commission's Legal Tender Expert Group (ELTEG) and the impact assessment accompanying the proposal for a Regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins, the Commission has examined the declining trends of access points to cash, including the closure of bank branches.
In the euro area, the overall number of cash access points is starting to show a decreasing trend, with an even stronger decreasing trend in the number of bank branches per 100,000 inhabitants on average , although trends vary from one Member State to another, confirming the heterogeneity of the situation on the ground.
The Commission took action by including in its Proposal for a Regulation of the Parliament and of the Council on the legal tender status of euro banknotes and coins[2] a provision in Article 8 which establishes the obligation for Member States to ensure sufficient and effective to cash throughout their territory, in all their regions, including urban and non-urban areas.
Member States would be obliged to monitor access to cash, to annually assess the situation in their territory and to report their assessment to the Commission and the European Central Bank. If sufficient and effective access to cash is not guaranteed, Member States will have to take corrective measures.
Such measures could also include geographic access requirements for payment service providers providing cash withdrawal services to maintain cash services at a sufficient number of bank branches in which they operate.
The proposed revisions to the Payment Services Directive can further facilitate access to cash, as the proposal allows retailers to offer a cash delivery service even in the absence of a purchase by the customer, without having to obtain a license or be an agent of a payment institution.
This is associated with some conditions, such as a maximum limit of 50 euros for each withdrawal and the obligation to communicate any fees applied.
The proposal would also allow some ATM operators that do not handle payment accounts to operate unlicensed ATMs, in order to simplify the provision of certain ATM services.
So the Commission says:
- Countries have the obligation to ensure that cash is always available on a territorial basis and the use of cash cannot be prevented by allowing withdrawal counters to close. . Furthermore, let us remember that in the EU the only money that is legal tender is the Euro banknote , and nothing else. So that must always be reachable;
- Countries need to find ways to make money accessible, whether by keeping bank branches open, allowing retailers to act as ATMs or allowing private ATMs. Let them do as they wish, but they must keep the cash available.
So why go crazy about electronic payments?
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The article Money matters: according to the Commission, states must ensure that it is always available comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/denaro-contate-secondo-la-commissione-gli-stati-devono-fare-in-modo-che-sia-sempre-disponibile/ on Sat, 16 Dec 2023 06:15:47 +0000.