The European Interbank Compensation Guidelines set common rules in the euro area in the field of compensation to address problems relating to errors made by banks handling payments. These Guidelines have become market practice in facilitating the settlement of claims arising between banks. On 1st of January 2017, the European Banking Federation together with the European Savings Banks Group and the European Association of Cooperative Banks have issued a revised version of the European Interbank Compensation Guidelines.
The objective of the 2017 revision is to address the issues arising from negative interest rates as the previous version does not properly reflect the current interest rate environment. It is proposed to add a full appendix to deal with negative interest rates. In view of the existence of negative interest rates in the euro area, the appendix will give guidance when the deposit facility rate published by the European Central Bank is below zero.
Regarding the specific issue of compliance with the Guidelines, it is left to market forces to monitor observance with them. These Guidelines are not intended to supersede existing national or European Union’s legislation.
