European citizens’ cross-border banking activities, such as mortgage credit, also depend on the further developments in and costs of cross-border payments.
In this respect, let me mention, as a final example of our contribution to fostering financial integration, the Eurosystem’s support, together with the European Commission, for the banking industry’s initiative to create a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), with which European citizens should be able to make payments throughout the euro area from a single bank account, and using a single set of payment instruments, as easily and safely as in the national context today.