##d ) is necessary to bring sepa to a successful conclusion. thus, i would encourage you to focus on what lies ahead, and not to be dissuaded from pursuing your initiatives and projects. as you know, one of the areas that needs to be driven further forward by the epc is the standardisation of cards. last year, ms tumpel - gugerell discussed three elements that are required for a move towards a competitive european payment card market : first, the development of an additional european card scheme ; second, the separation of card schemes from processing entities ; and third, card standardisation. bis central bankers ’ speeches progress in the development of an additional card scheme has been considerably slower than hoped for. the slow progress in this area gives further weight and importance to card standardisation, which should ensure interoperability and the harmonised use of cards across europe. here, i would like to emphasise that the epc should provide guidance for standardisation initiatives in the different domains ( card - to - terminal, terminal - to - acquirer, acquirer - to - issuer, and certification and type approval ) on which standards are to be used for sepa. equally important, the epc should also provide guidance on how to implement them. with regard to the sepa certification framework, the ecb has submitted some recommendations to the epc on how to facilitate agreement between the different stakeholders. now that the summer break is over, we would expect to receive your feedback on these recommendations in the near future. the third issue addressed last year was the security of retail payments. here, the establishment of the secure pay forum, which aims to deliver concrete recommendations on card - not - present and online payments by the end of this year, should contribute to the creation of a level playing field with a high level of security in europe. the ecb welcomes the fact that the epc regards the prevention of card fraud as one of its top priorities and that it has defined measures to reduce fraud and protect payment data. however, the market should be more ambitious and follow the eurosystem ’ s recommendation to issue “ chip only ” cards and, in addition, to start with implementing intermediate fraud prevention measures such as the regional blocking of card transactions. in this respect, it is encouraging that europol has called on the united states to close this loophole for fraudulent card transactions. the recent announcement of visa inc. to accelerate migration to emv in the united states and

see nbp fsr of february 2016 ( financial stability report ) : ‘ the experience from attempts to rescue sk bank confirmed the necessity of prompt introduction into the polish legal system the provisions of the bank recovery and resolution directive – brrd ’ ( p. 52 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches in this respect, we have to be mindful of banks ’ concerns about compliance costs, the complexity of the new framework and its cumulative impact. inconsistencies between the different levels of legislation should be avoided. at the same time, more clarity about the interaction between the various acts and measures would be welcome. we agree on the need to standardise and streamline data reporting initiatives to reduce unnecessary burdens for banks. proportionality must guide action in the reporting area if we want to be consistent with the objective of preserving diversity of business models within the eu. and if there are concrete cases to improve the overall consistency of the post - crisis framework by avoiding overlaps and gaps in the regulation, these should certainly be addressed. conclusion let me draw to a close. a stable financial system is an absolute prerequisite for sustainable economic growth, but stability alone is not enough : as has been said before, we all want stability, but we should not want the stability of the graveyard. it also has to be profitable for banks to provide credit to the real economy. for that, we need a more favourable business environment in europe but we also need less uncertainty, including in the realm of regulation. the cost of equity cannot stay above the return on equity forever. put differently, regulatory reform is necessary but it should lead to regulatory reliability. we should aim for regulatory completion yet still strive for a new dynamic equilibrium to provide the solid foundation that banks need in order to operate effectively. i am convinced that the transformation of europe ’ s banking landscape currently in progress can lead to a stronger, more competitive and more resilient banking system if we succeed in balancing change and stability. bis central bankers ’ speeches