(Source: Measuring Financial Inclusion, The Global Findex Database, World Bank, April 2012). The share of cash payments as a percentage of the number of payments in each country is highest in GR, BG, RO, IT (Source: Schmiedel, H., Kostova, G. and Ruttenberg, W. “The Social and Private Costs of Retail Payment Instruments – A European Perspective”. ECB Occasional Paper No 137, September 2012).
BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  One reason for adopting a defensive posture may be that, until recently, most banks heavily relied on interchange fees for cards in their business model. But this business model is being increasingly challenged in a number of countries and jurisdictions. I mentioned earlier the proposal for a Regulation on interchange fees for cards.