The Migration of credit transfers and direct debits under the SEPA requirements, will not resolve all payment-related issues which will be on the agenda of the Euro Retail Payments Board. Because of that, the Board is expected to  1  2  Hasan, I., Renzis, D. T. & Schmiedel, H. (2013) Retail Payments and the Real Economy. European Central Bank Working Paper No. 1572. BIS central bankers’ speeches  intensify its efforts for further integration in the field of card payments, innovations and security. Seventh, during the course of this conference we will also discuss virtual currencies, taking into account the public interest about the effects that these currencies have on the payments. Although these currencies are not economically significant and therefore, do not pose a risk to the price and financial stability, they do however pose significant risks to the individual users of the currencies. These risks, however, could impair the reputation of central banks given the fact that virtual currency schemes operate as retail payment systems, but are not regulated and monitored. Please allow me to briefly conclude that this conference on payment and security settlement systems has grown into a platform of active cooperation between the central banks, both in our region and beyond, in Europe, and we hope to continue hosting it in the future to assure faster and complete integration in the European Union.
Ever since the single currency was introduced, the integration of financial markets has advanced much faster in terms of integration in the field of payments. However, the crisis has conditioned a segmentation of the European financial markets, while the convergence of payment habits has been an ongoing process supported in large by the European SEPA project. The implementation of SEPA project has inspired new integration processes in the European Union, which proved to be necessary in times of economic and financial instability, such as building the banking union by establishing the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the Single Resolution Mechanism for banks and the unique rules regulating the deposit insurance schemes. Therefore, the integration in many fields is a consequence of the  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  monetary integration in the European Union, which was timely foreseen in the field of payments where we have gradual and continued integration. However, the ultimate goal of SEPA is not to make the users of payment services behave uniformly, but to harmonize principles, business practices, and rules and technical standards for conducting payments. In that respect, recently, the main focus was the migration of credit transfers and direct debts under the SEPA standards, with the deadline for the members of the euro area being August 2014. In the period ahead, the efforts within the SEPA project are expected to aim towards harmonization of card payments.