Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-24-Speech-5-030"
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"en.20090424.3.5-030"2
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"Madam President, just to satisfy the prudential concerns mentioned by Mrs Berès, I would point out that we have insisted in this directive and report that e-money funds are not deposits; credit cannot be created upon them. We have opened the door for e-money only a bit wider.
The basic capital requirement is reduced to EUR 350 000; the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs would have preferred EUR 200 000. The own-funds requirement is to be 2% of outstanding e-money funds; we would have preferred 1.6%, but with the 20% flexibility up or down that is allowed, the more liberal Member States can go down to 1.6% and the conservative Member States can go up to 2.4%.
It is not ideal that we still have the prospect of such an uneven playing field in the European Union, especially when we have insisted that e-money users’ funds will be fully safeguarded and there are also other important user-friendly protections, for example in redemption, as Mrs Berès mentioned. Because of the level of capital required, the waiver level has also had to be set for purely national e-money operators at EUR 5 million instead of EUR 2 million.
All in all, this is a very cautious step forward. It is not perfect. Compromises seldom are. Almost certainly it will have to be revisited in three or four years’ time and, by then, I hope more operators will have entered the business. Users and merchants will be clamouring for more choice. The more doubtful regulators, banks, Mrs Berès – and even the European Central Bank – will have become reconciled that this is a beneficial, user-friendly service which holds no risks to the European economy. We in Europe can at last take up all the opportunities which e-money offers."@en1
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