Remittances

(asked on 24th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require transparency in the (a) fees and (b) charges applied to international (i) payments and (ii) remittances; and if he will include in those proposals, reference to the exchange rate margin, calculated from the interbank exchange rate.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 3rd July 2020

Since April 2020, provisions of the amended Cross Border Payments Regulation (also known as CBPR2), which require transparency of currency conversion fees and charges, have applied in the United Kingdom. These provisions require that where a currency conversion is offered at a Point of Sale, ATM, or when making a credit transfer, the full cost of any fees and charges is shown as a percentage mark up over the latest foreign exchange reference rates issued by the European Central Bank. This is intended to enable consumers to make informed decisions when purchasing currency conversion services.

CBPR2 is a directly applicable EU regulation which continues to apply in the United Kingdom during the Transition Period under the terms of the EU Withdrawal Agreement. Before the end of the Transition Period, the Government will bring forward secondary legislation under the EU Withdrawal Act 2018 to ensure that these provisions continue to work effectively in UK law after the end of the Transition Period.

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