UFC-Que Choisir calls for lower money transfer fees

The UFC-Que Choisir association is calling on Wednesday for a drop in the fees applied by financial institutions to money transfers to Ukraine, in order to facilitate donations to this country which has suffered the Russian invasion since February 24.

The consumer defense association demands that the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union take up the issue of money transfer fees to Ukraine so that it obtains from financial institutions at least a rapid drop in rates, she said in a statement, denouncing the immoral dearness of the latter.

For a shipment of 180 euros from the European Union to Ukraine, banks and money transfer companies charge nearly 11euros, on averagecalculated the UFC-Que Choisir, based on a study published Friday by the Global Partnership for Knowledge on Migration and Development (Knomad), an initiative coordinated by the World Bank.

According to this study, lowering these fees by two percentage points could save 400 million dollars (about 367 million euros) for people sending money to Ukraine. If fees are removed, savings could be $1 billion per year, or about 918 million euros, add the authors. This is almost twice as much as the humanitarian aid from the European Commission, notes AFP Matthieu Robin, in charge of the financial sector at UFC-Que Choisir.

The Commission announced on Tuesday 1 March aid of at least 500 million euros from the EU budget for humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.

France la trane

Since the start of the war, several European banks have announced the abolition of fees on transfers to Ukraine. This is notably the case of the Irish banks Bank of Ireland and AIB, the Portuguese Caixa Geral de Depsitos and Santander Totta, as well as the online bank Revolut.

France is it the trane, regrets the association, with an average of 30 euros in fees for a transfer of 180 euros and 5 euros through a company specializing in money transfer.

According to Knomad, money transfers to Ukraine, which reached more than 17 billion euros in 2021, are expected to increase by at least 8% in 2022.

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