The exercise involved in by South Africa to revise is national payment, clearing and settlement system provides an opportunity to plan ahead and consider ways and means of introducing compatible and inter-changeable systems in the region; a concerted approach on efforts to reduce or avoid money laundering and illegal banking activities in the region; and a major initiative to improve the quality of bank supervision and regulation in the region, and to co-ordinate policies on the licensing of banking institutions.
Finally, the strategy encompasses work on the environmental sustainability of payments and on access to payments for all citizens. We are also preparing for the future through our work on a possible digital euro. A digital euro would provide Europeans cost-free access to a safe form of digital money which respects privacy and has legal tender status, ensuring it can be used everywhere.