The actual future trend in the volume of payments is, in my view, difficult to predict, however. The adoption of the single BIS Review 84/1998  -4-  currency will, at least, mean that there will be no transactions which aim at exchange rate positioning among the disappearing European currencies, as there are now.
The current efforts to limit the foreign exchange settlement risk will have a similar impact. A significant increase in the use of netting procedures in foreign exchange dealings or the successful implementation of the CLS initiative might, in all probability, lead to a perceptible reduction in the number of transactions. The possibility of excess capacity arising in large-value payments cannot therefore be ruled out.