Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will require firms offering international money transfer services to show the difference between the exchange rate they are offering and the interbank rate after Brexit.

Currently the Cross Border Payments Regulation (CPBR), an EU regulation, sets rules on the pricing of cross-border euro payments.

A revised regulation, “CPBR2”, is currently under negotiation in the EU. The original Commission proposal, would, amongst other things, mandate greater transparency for cross-border payments which include currency conversion, through for example reference to the interbank exchange rate. The Government is broadly supportive of proposals which make financial services more affordable and pricing more transparent for consumers, while ensuring that regulation is proportionate to the risks that it seeks to address.

The Government is making good progress towards agreeing a Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, including an Implementation Period during which common rules would continue to apply until 31 December 2020.

After the Implementation Period, our proposal for the future UK-EU relationship on financial services would ensure that the development of regulation would be an autonomous matter for both the UK and the EU. Equally, we acknowledge that maintaining continued EU market access will, where necessary, involve maintaining comparable regulatory outcomes with the EU. The Chancellor has been clear that it is vitally important that the UK and the EU, with our common values and standards, continue to work closely together to further enhance the strong international rules we have forged in financial services. The Government has not committed to any changes to the policy outcomes of the current regime following the UK’s exit from the EU.