Speech Kroes: Key challenges and trends for Europe's retail payment systems

03 December 2007

Speaking at the EUROFI Conference in Brussels, Commissioner Kroes expressed her concern that some of the arrangements in the SEPA framework as proposed by the banking community may not be suitable to reach their goals.

 

“I do not want to see low cost national card schemes being replaced by more expensive payment card schemes, using SEPA as an excuse and a pretext for this move”, she said.

 

“These concerns are shared not only by the ECB, but also by all the national competition authorities”, she said.

 

“The SEPA Cards Framework does not develop any detailed rules and standards for card payments”, she said. “It rather describes three 'options' for attaining SEPA compliance.

“Market participants seem to interpret these three options in a way that a card scheme is only SEPA compliant if it covers all 31 states of the SEPA territory. The Commission and the ECB feel there is no need that the key element of SEPA compliance should be the coverage of all 31 SEPA states. “

 

“Another area of concern relates to the governance of the EPC. The SEPA Cards Framework seems to deny access to non-bank payment schemes. But access by new players is crucial to promote competition in the payments market. This needs to be addressed.”

 

Speech Kroes - Key challenges and trends for Europe's retail payment systems

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