|
|
The European Union should open up retail financial services to more competition to bring lower prices for consumers who will also then see how EU membership can produce tangible benefits, the bloc's new financial chief said on October 18.
Jonathan Hill - European financial services commissioner since Nov. 1 - pointed to liberalisation of telecoms as an example where EU action has pushed down the price of a cross-border mobile phone call, one of the EU's most popular policy moves.
EU legislation has also helped low-cost airlines Ryanair and easyJet to shake-up air travel across the continent to bring down fares.
"Can we apply those lessons in the sphere of financial services? And if so, how? Competition gives consumers choice," Hill said in a speech in Brussels.
He said prising open financial services to more competition would also bring wider political benefits at a time when anti-EU political parties are in the ascendancy.
The retail financial service industry in the European Union is still fragmented and regulated along national lines, with products reflecting long-established cultural idiosyncracies.
Hill said that travel insurance in Britain was 55 euros but 150 euros in France, for the same level of coverage. Car insurance in Poland cost 700 euros but rose to 1,300 euros in Belgium.
"We have some knotty problems to resolve if we are to succeed in opening up retail markets," Hill said.
But more and more financial products are brought online and price comparison websites could be a powerful tool for finding the best deals.