The ECB has acted as a catalyst here, providing analytical work and producing progress reports, together with the national central banks, as well as organising conferences and other events to bring market participants together. It has also worked closely with EU legislators, supporting a harmonised legal framework for retail payments.
It has resulted in some concrete achievements: •  Pan-European schemes for basic retail payments, i.e. the SEPA credit transfer and direct debit, were introduced by the payments industry in January 2008 and November 2009 respectively.