I’d also like to say a few words on interchange fees, the issue of this workshop. Why are retail payments important? Payments oil the wheels of the single market. They facilitate the “four freedoms”– the free movement of people, goods, services and capital. Without an efficient electronic payment system, the Union would not have been able to develop and grow over the years.
And neither should we forget the contribution made by the large-value and retail payment systems to Europe’s economy at the height of the crisis and in its aftermath. They helped Europe’s economy to run smoothly.