The time it took for such a letter to be delivered stayed roughly the same from the time of the Roman Empire until the mid-19th century. In 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first message using Morse code, thereby inventing the concept of electronic messaging. One of the forerunners of digitisation. This cut the time it took to transmit messages from weeks to seconds.
Therefore, the ECB decided to publish a number of objectives which the banking and payment service industry is expected to fulfil by the time of the introduction of the euro banknotes and coins. While the direct involvement of the Eurosystem in retail payment systems does not seem to be justified at present, it will certainly act as a catalyst for change.