Of this growth, card payments were the strongest driver.4 In the European Union, card payments reached a total of over 29 billion transactions in 2008, also growing at a rate of almost 9%.5 This shows the immense potential of this means of payment to generate revenue for the financial industry through growth, even at a time when interchange fees are under pressure. In my view, SEPA offers tremendous opportunities for further harmonisation of the use of cards, making them an even more attractive means of payment. But, besides the harmonization of card standards, more competition in the European cards market can bring additional benefits to consumers. Therefore, the Eurosystem remains convinced that an additional European card scheme is needed. Three initiatives are under way: PAYFAIR, EAPS and “Monnet”. The Eurosystem has maintained close contacts with all these initiatives to create an additional European card scheme. We are pleased to see that one of the initiatives has recently started a pilot with a large merchant, and that another initiative is operational among some of its constituent schemes, especially for ATM withdrawals. We are hopeful that these initiatives, whether separately or jointly, will come to fruition in the near future. In essence, for SEPA for Cards to become a success, card payments need to be positioned as a real alternative to cash: efficient, fast and guaranteed. This could and should be delivered by the already existing card schemes and the foreseen additional ones. However, this will not be enough.
A successful SEPA for Cards also needs the harmonisation of technical standards, basic business rules and certification practices across schemes. Only this will bring an integrated cards market into effect. SEPA by its nature of harmonizing the retail payments market will promote more competition and hence will be a key driver of innovation in the market. New developments have already taken off in the field of eSEPA. eSEPA means the provision of various retail payment services by means of electronic channels – such as internet – in order to offer benefits to payment service users in the form of easier access, better functionality and a more attractive user experience. More and more companies and consumers operate online. Hence, the market needs to create European e-payment – or online – solutions, which will bring even more efficient and transparent trading at the retail level. For example, an “e-payment” is an internet banking payment. The web-merchant receives a payment guarantee confirmation in real-time and the goods can be released immediately. In addition, they have a security advantage, insofar as the merchant does not have to handle and store his clients’ confidential banking details. We welcome that the EPC is currently developing a framework for the interoperability of such online payment schemes. The Eurosystem strongly encourages the EPC to finalise the e-Payments framework in the near future. Moreover, we encourage the EPC to consider establishing a European e-payments scheme or to taking over one of the existing schemes.