Like many of Europe’s other achievements, advances in retail payments are all too easily taken for granted. It took approximately 12 years to harmonise credit transfers and direct debits across Europe, but today’s users can rely on a single account for their payments business within the SEPA area and freely choose payment service providers based on quality and costs rather than location.
And competition between payment service providers now takes place on a level playing field. So what has been the key driver of past success? Beyond doubt, it is the cooperation between payment stakeholders in Europe. Since the payments market is a network industry, cooperation and coordination among market players are of utmost importance.