CMU will also be key to supporting European growth by diversifying sources of funding and increasing companies’ access to financing. While the improved access to capital for small and medium-sized enterprises foreseen by the vision for Capital Markets Union is currently very much in the limelight, we should not forget that SMEs could also benefit substantially from more innovative retail payments services.
Let me give you some examples here. First, now that SEPA is up and running, SMEs are able to use one single account for euro payments throughout the EU. Second, the experiences of other markets – particularly the United Kingdom, where instant payments have been available since 2008 – show that SMEs greatly benefit from faster payment execution.