Scrapping credit card fees would jeopardise the European Union's plans to create a cheaper cross-border payments system for consumers and companies, Visa Europe said on Monday.

Neelie Kroes, the bloc's competition commissioner, is due to unveil on January 31 the final results of her investigation into credit card fees.

Retailers pay banks an "interchange" fee a percentage of each purchase to process card-based transactions.

The European Commission struck an agreement with credit card operator Visa in 2002, forcing it to cut interchange fees by the end of 2007 in return for not being subject to the full thrust of EU antitrust rules.

The EU is also looking at rival MasterCard's practice of setting interchange fees.

Peter Ayliffe, president and chief executive of Visa Europe, said the payments industry was investing 10-30 billion euros to put EU plans for a single euro payments area (SEPA) into effect from January 2008.

Ayliffe urged Kroes not to seek fundamental changes to the interchange fee structure.

"I think it would also put SEPA at risk," Ayliffe told reporters.

Kroes' spokesman, Jonathan Todd, said all industry comments would be taken into account.

source: China Daily/Agencies