(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission said Wednesday that contacts had been held with banks on setting up a payments card network that could rival Visa and MasterCard in a sector it says lacks competition.

"We have had a series of contacts with banks and other interested parties about payments cards," commission spokesman for competition matters Jonathan Todd told journalists.

The Financial Times reported Wednesday that Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank of Germany and French banks Societe Generale and BNP Paribas were preparing to decide on launching a new card network in the coming months.

"Members of this project have approached the commission, but they're not the only ones," Todd said, adding that that did not mean the EU competition watchdog had given its backing.

The European Commission, which has long lamented a lack of competition in the sector, has in the past called for the creation of a third payment card network.

The commission launched an antitrust probe last month into Visa Europe to determine if its fees for cross-border transactions broke EU competition rules.

In December, EU antitrust regulators ordered Visa's arch-rival MasterCard Europe to scrap fees they consider unjustified on cross-border transactions or face hefty daily fines.

In both cases, the commission has targeted so-called interchange fees that banks charge on payments made at retail outlets and which it considers to be too high.

According to the Financial Times, the willingness of the German and French banks to go ahead with their initiative depends on how high the commission would accept interchange fees to be set.

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