The proposal also aims to introduce more competition in payment systems and facilitate the realisation of economies of scale. This will improve efficiency and reduce the cost of payment systems for the economy as a whole, an issue of high importance to the Bank of Greece, as electronic payments systems are not very much in demand in Greece.
To operationalise this amendment, CBK and KBA came together to lay the ground work. This included benchmarking with best practices in other countries and developing appropriate guidelines. Following consultative forums with the market players, the agent banking model was successfully rolled out in May 2010.