In my intervention today, I will address how payment systems are increasingly becoming global in nature, also in a domain which typically used to be purely domestic – namely retail payments. The treatment of other types of payments, such as large value – or wholesale – payments and foreign exchange payments, has been quite international for some time, and is gathering momentum.
Now, small value (end-user) payments are also following this direction. And Europe provides many good illustrations of retail payments becoming international. For example, until recently it was not possible to pay in Austria with my German debit payment card (EC Karte). I had to use either the international Maestro debit card scheme or a credit card.