Friday, March 07, 2003

Ministry of Finance responds to questions on cost and price of cash distribution..

The Minister of Finance today published his reply to questions of MP Crone. These questions were asked because banks increased their fees for depositing coins. And their reason for doing so was that the Minister of Finance stopped subsidizing the coin distribution in the Netherlands.



In the reply to MP Crone it becomes clear that in the future we will be confronted more and more with European rules that specify that government bodies that are active in the market, may not be subsidised and must use cost-+ based pricing models. The result will often be an increase of fees and prices for the intermediairy and end users.



This may sound negative. But the benefit is that any market player that knows how to do it cheaper, may step up to offer its services, without undue/false competition of a government sponsored entity.