Bank charges on euro transfers

One can choose to be either ironic or philosophical about it, but there it is. R. Zammit and P.L.L. Gussenhoven write - in 2005 - to Simon Busuttil MEP, complaining about bank charges on bank transfers, debited to their euro accounts here in Malta, to beneficiaries in other EU states. And Dr Busuttil painstakingly takes the time to explain to them what has already been explained to the public, time and again, going back at least 10 years. Let me quote some examples:

1996 - The proceedings of the annual European Documentation and Research Centre conference on the EU, the IGC and the Mediterranean, as published by the University of Malta (ISBN 99909-67-02-4), contain the paper which Saviour Gauci and the undersigned presented on Monetary Movements And Consumer Protection In The EMU: Adjustments Required To Maltese Practices.

That paper had not only dealt with charges issues such as these but also with the six (vital) principles which the European Commission was then proposing as having to become constantly followed by banks when making cross-border transfers.

March 31, 2002 - Adrian Muscat Inglott, in The Sunday Times, tackles the question of bank charges on a euros transfer from a Rabat branch of a local bank to an account with Dutch Postbank.

April 7, 2002 - The Sunday Times again features a full-page article which I had written about this subject.

April 21, 2002 - Mr Muscat Inglott again tackles bank charges.

And so on and so forth... The subject has been flogged to death, there are clear rules which say what the banks can and cannot do in every circumstance and it is now simply a case of customers: (a) being proactive enough not to wait till when they are hit, that is educating themselves before the need for any particular transaction comes up; (b) being assertive enough to then go up to their branch manager and, if needs be, telling him where to get off, and (c) if he then does not do it, just trotting down to the appropriate government customer complaints department.