The PAN today presented a bill that aims to limit the bank commissions charged for operations carried out through payment applications operated by third parties, such as MB Way.
At issue is recent news that SIBS – manager of the Multibanco network and the MB Way service – intends to allow the latter to be associated with payment accounts, in addition to the existing solution of associating with payment cards, which has led Deco – the Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection – to warn of the risk of an increase in commissions in this new system of transfers between accounts.
According to Deco, this change could bring about a “brutal increase in commissions on what is the average value of MB Way transfers, of approximately 40 euros, going from around 10 cents to 80 cents or over one euro”.
PAN proposes, recalling the demands of this consumer protection association, that the current regime of the MB Way service associated with payment cards be guaranteed for the new MB Way service associated with payment accounts.
“This means that in this service made available to the public in September, transfers of up to 30 euros will have to be free of charge, up to a limit of 150 euros or 25 transactions per month, and that a bank commission can only be charged if these limits are exceeded,” explains Pessoas-Animais-Natureza.
If these transfer limits are exceeded, PAN proposes that the commission should not exceed 0.2% of the amount transferred, if the transfer is made using a debit card or account funds, or 0.3% of the amount transferred, if the transfer is made using credit cards.
Currently, the party recalls, legislation sets limits on bank commissions for transactions made through applications such as MB Way, but these limits only apply to transactions made using payment cards.
The SIBS application now also allows transfers based on bank accounts – a modality not provided for in the law and which leads to higher fees being charged for this type of operation – and so the PAN is also proposing an update to the law to ensure that both types of transfer are subject to the same fee limits.
