Bureaux de Change: Fees and Charges

(asked on 27th June 2022) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) consumers and (b) SMEs of high unadvertised exchange fees charged by some foreign exchange services.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 30th June 2022

The Government recognises the importance of transparency of fees and charges in ensuring effective competition between payment service providers.

Where currency conversion is provided as part of a payment transaction, the Payment Services Regulations 2017 make requirements on UK payment service providers regarding disclosure of fees and charges to the payer, for example, the exchange rate used for a currency conversion transaction. Provisions under the Cross Border Payments Regulation, which continue to apply in the UK as part of retained EU law, also contribute to price transparency, with further requirements regarding how foreign exchange costs must be communicated before a payment is made. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the relevant regulatory authority with responsibility for monitoring and enforcing these requirements, and should the FCA have concerns regarding firms’ compliance with the requirements on fee advertisement, it will take appropriate action as necessary

These regulations, among other things, are intended to enable payment service users such as consumers and SMEs to make informed decisions when making use of payment services, including where currency conversion is offered as part of a payment transaction. The Government has no plans at this time to amend the requirements on firms, but keeps all policy under review.

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