By contrast, retail banking continues to be fragmented for various reasons, but an important one is that there are too many retail payment infrastructures. This is one reason why the ECB is strongly supporting the establishment of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) as quickly as possible.
Credit risk was then passed through to the financial system as a whole by way of MBSs and CDOs. For these reasons, when economic conditions weakened, it aggravated the seriousness of the problems of non-performing mortgages with corresponding severe impact on the financial market.