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Competition Policy

Consumers and businesses alike use the financial services provided by the banking and payment sectors. The Commission applies the EU competition rules fully to these sectors.  The banking sector includes retail banking (for individual consumers), wholesale banking (for financial institutions) and corporate banking (services to companies). The Commission has carried out a sector inquiry into retail banking.

The payment sector includes a wide range of services, such as inter-bank payment systems, corporate and retail payments, and payment cards. Competitors commonly participate in co-operative arrangements in this sector, and these could give rise to competition concerns. The Commission, and competition and regulatory authorities all over the world, actively investigate anti-competitive practices in the payment sector and in payment cards in particular.

The Directorates-General for Competition and Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA) co-operate in this field to ensure that EU financial regulation is pro-competitive from the outset.

Related Links:

Interchange Fees Regulation 2015/7511 - National Competent Authorities

The effects of temporary State Aid rules adopted in the context of the financial and economic crisis

DG Competition's review of guarantee and recapitalisation schemes in the financial sector in the current crisis (August 2009)