You can rest assured that payment systems of European countries will cease to be national payment systems sooner or later. As intended by the European Union decision-makers, in a few years cross-border euro payments will be as unified and cheap as is the case for cashless money settlements in national payment systems now. From the point of view of the central bank, SEPA should be beneficial first of all to the citizens of Europe, but it is also to contribute to the development of the payment services market. As politicians refine their visions of united Europe, tax-payers ask questions about the price. In the long term, the balance of benefits and costs of united Europe is undoubtedly favourable. The same pertains to the idea of SEPA. However, it is worth remembering that the final shape of the European payment system should be determined, to the largest possible extent, by the market that will choose the best solution for banks’ clients. The assumptions made in order to streamline and increase the efficiency of cashless turnover in euro are well justified economically across Euroland. However, in countries outside the Euro area, such as Poland, the implementation of SEPA should be subject to a thorough debate in a relevant community.
BIS Review 97/2006  1  since Europe will be able to take advantage of what Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Helene Rey describe as the “exorbitant privilege” 3 . Payment systems of the Euroland countries do not follow these changes swiftly enough. These systems have supported national and international retail operations in various European currencies so far. The only exception were activities of the central banks under the aegis of the European Central Bank. These banks quickly developed and launched the TARGET system for real-time gross settlements of large volume euro transactions. As regards the cashless turnover in pan-European relations, foreign currency exchange savings were the only measurable benefit stemming from the introduction of the euro for the consumers. Apart from that, the settlement time and the costs of crossborder transactions remained on the same high level as before the implementation of the single currency. These costs were much higher than prices of national transactions. One of the causes was the lack of the appropriate technical infrastructure, discrepancies in information and business standards applied in individual countries and the willingness of the banking sector to gain financial benefits from higher fees for cross-border transactions. This problem was raised already at the very beginning of the implementation of the single currency in Europe and the lack of visible and effective activities undertaken to change the situation encouraged the European Union decision-makers to take regulatory action. The aim was to provide mechanisms for effective euro payments in the Euroland and uniform principles for cashless payments.