Thus, one of the lessons learned is that the involvement of the demand side in the governance of the integration process is necessary to facilitate migration. Last but not least, the integration process at European level requires a readiness to discard some national models and habits. Probably this is the most difficult part of the transformation of the retail payments market.
In countries such as Germany there is even talk of a “cold expropriation” of those who save money for their old age. I don’t think this assumption is appropriate. The current low returns for savers are mainly an ongoing result of the recent deep recession and of the fragmentation of the financial market in the euro area.