Increasing mobility of funds across borders

The cross-border component of all EEC/EU bank transfers currently accounts for only between one and two percent of all European bank transfers but it is argued would increase substantially if customers were offered better service and the costs were less prohibitive.

The European Savings Banks Group has a network of 34,000 cash dispensers throughout Europe, through which it handled 2.5 million cross-border transfer transactions in 1994. The European postal system launched a Eurogiro facility in 1994 to handle smaller cross-border amounts within 3 days. The Inter Bank Online System (Ibos) was established in 1990 by the Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander to tackle drawbacks experienced particularly by corporate clients (delays, inefficiency and expense) with traditional cross-border banking services. In 1995 it had 4,000 outlets in Europe.