In particular, I will focus on what has already been done in this area and on what remains to be done. I will start by underlining the importance, for the European financial integration, of the development of efficient and safe payment infrastructures. Then, I will assess progress made in this field since the launch of the euro. I should mention immediately that my assessment is mixed. On the one hand, I consider that the situation is favourable for large-value payment systems. On the other hand, I can’t yet make the same positive assessment concerning retail payment systems. As a consequence, I will end my presentation by elaborating on the further developments needed to strengthen the integration of retail payments. 1. Payment infrastructures are a necessary driver for financial integration  Payment infrastructures cover all procedures and systems used by financial intermediaries to exchange payment orders issued by economic agents. Accordingly, they play a fundamental role for the smooth functioning of the economy as a whole. Indeed, provided that they allow financial transfers to take place between economic agents in an efficient and safe way, payment infrastructures are a key support to one of the core functions of money, namely money as a means of exchange. In the EU, infrastructures processing payments in euro consist in a number of arrangements, which are of different nature. For example, the exchange of payment orders in euro between financial intermediaries can be handled within multilateral systems or within the framework of correspondent banking bilateral arrangements.
As a result, in less than ten years since the launch of the euro, the number of large value payment systems in euro operating in the EU will have been dramatically reduced: this number is to drop from 21 ( i.e the 16 components of TARGET1 plus 5 privately-owned systems) down to 2 (TARGET2 and EURO 1). To sum up, we should shortly be on the same footing as the United States in terms of the integration of large-value payment infrastructures. On the retail side, the situation is quite different. Indeed, there are today in the EU, 15 multilateral clearing and settlement systems in euro, almost the same number than 10 years ago, and there is no clear sign for the time being that this number is going to fall significantly in the short to medium run. The market is therefore characterized by this multiplicity of national multilateral retail payment systems, coexisting with various other payment arrangements such as bilateral schemes, international card schemes or banking “clubs”. It is fair to say that significant steps towards integration have nevertheless been made since the introduction of the euro banknotes and coins. In 2002, the European banking community launched the SEPA project, with the final objective that by 2010 “all payments are treated as domestic as far as speed, security, convenience and cost are concerned”.