Sir, - Irish banks must be urged not to bump up bank costs for customers during the transitional period of the introduction of a single European currency.
From January 1999 until the complete changeover in cash terms in mid-2002, the banking sector will be obliged to prepare for and cope with a dual accounting system in order to be fully prepared for the final stages of EMU. The British Bankers' Association claims this will result in an increase of 2 per cent to 3 per cent in overheads for the banks during each of the years 1999 to 2002.
It is imperative that the hard-pressed consumer does not have to carry the can for these temporary costs.
Giving the existing trend in banking towards technological dependence and new smart-card and electronic cash possibilities, banks may profit from these Euro-related changes to bring forward technical advances that may have been necessary in any event.
The banks must remember one thing. The period for introducing a single European currency is a time of change for all people involved in business. The banks are not the only corporate entities to have to change their business operations. Small and medium-sized enterprises will have to come to terms with the implications of the Euro in terms of their marketing, financing, accounting, information and sales policies.
Most political and economic commentators agree that there will be substantial benefits for the medium to long-term development of the Irish economy by the joining of a single European currency in terms of interest-rate reductions and reduced export costs. The fact that the EMU will be good news for the Irish economy in the long term is in itself good news for the banks. - Yours, etc.,
Jim Fitzsimons, MEP,
Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.