European banks have relinquished their influence in this area, possibly because of short-term profit considerations. Indeed, large non-European companies now play a significant role in the provision of payment services in Europe, while European banks are focused solely on serving their national markets. Let’s face it: the foundations laid by European institutions have not been leveraged by European providers in order to offer pan European services. Instead, those foundations are often exploited by multinationals from outside Europe offering innovative, consumer-friendly solutions. Indeed, European banks seem to have surrendered much of the pan European payment business. PayPal now dominates the market for online payments in Europe, using the pan-European SEPA credit transfer and SEPA direct debit schemes to provide harmonised services. Meanwhile, 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon – often referred to collectively as “GAFA” – are also offering significant payment services with pan-European reach, some of which involve joint ventures with individual banks at national level. At the same time, Chinese giants like Alibaba and Tencent are advancing. While these companies are to be admired for their ability to expand and provide innovative services that consumers want, I would ask why there are no European companies competing in that arena. There is a risk that our dependence on foreign providers will increase further as regards the development of innovative payment services, since banks are resisting the objectives of PSD2 on this front.

The ERPB was instrumental in the development of the SEPA instant credit transfer scheme, which is now live, with over 1,000 providers participating. Those instant payments have been achieved without legislation, with the ECB instead facilitating dialogue and consensus between market actors. Moreover, that scheme will soon be complemented by the ECB’s new Target Instant Payment Settlement service, which is set to go live this November, providing a real-time, high-end platform for payment service innovation. The challenge for Europe Progress towards an integrated market for payments has not been without its problems. Europe still does not have an integrated, standardised card payment network, with the vision of being able to use any card at any payment terminal in Europe having yet to be realised. Europe’s largest card payment networks are still not interoperable. For example, Germany’s Girocard and France’s Cartes Bancaires account for a substantial number of card payments in the euro area’s two largest economies. However, owing to significant technical differences, a supposed lack of a business case and an absence of political will, these two networks remain separate – as do most other national card schemes. As a consequence, it is more convenient to use non-European cards when travelling across Europe. Although some standardisation work has been carried out via the European Cards Stakeholders Group, Europe still does not have its own Europe-wide card scheme, so we remain fully reliant on non-European schemes when making cross-border card payments. Although they provide a valued service, those schemes raise certain questions from a governance perspective.