must ensure that all countries apply strict regulations regarding crypto - assets, and that no stablecoin arrangement enters into operation without having fully met the regulatory expectations. the european union has been a pioneer in this field, putting forward last september a proposal for a markets in crypto - assets regulation ( also known as mica ). i sincerely hope the eu shall adopt this first harmonised regulatory framework in the coming months. if it modifies the commission ’ s proposal, it should only be to strengthen it. crypto - asset issuers and entities providing additional services, such as transfer or custody, will in particular have to provide a predictable redemption right in sovereign currency for asset holders. they will also be subject to uniform requirements across the eu and act under the watch of supervisory authorities, from whom they will have to obtain prior authorisation. at international level, there should be an efficient cooperative framework adapted to the diversity of risks and challenges raised by stablecoins. the second action is to foster the major private project to create a unified, innovative and autonomous european solution, the european payments initiative ( epi ). the eurosystem has supported it right from the start. concretely, epi will provide citizens with an innovative and competitive european payment solution, as an alternative to the dominant and extra - european players already established in europe or the bigtechs in the future. epi will be a company based within the eu, controlled by european authorities : we will thus have greater control over its risks, its economic model for meeting european consumers ’ needs, and how it uses its data. let me pay tribute to those who are driving the epi project, and encourage them to implement it as quickly as possible. we need to speed up autumn 2021 ’ s “ go / no go ” decision stage and the governing bodies also have to be put in place as soon as possible to help epi deploy on a pan - european scale. public authorities are and will remain completely committed in their support : the european commission, in order to validate the economic model ; ministers in the different countries – starting with france and germany. we as eurosystem are committed to providing the underlying settlement infrastructures, including tips, which is a powerful european asset. and epi will be most welcome to participate in the front - end prototype of cbdc. but i must stress the urgency here : we don ’ t have much time left, one or two years. everybody is talking about a cbdc ; but

speech an efficient, competitive and safe payments system philip lowe [ * ] governor keynote address at australian payments network summit 2022 sydney – 14 december 2022 thank you for the invitation to speak at auspaynet ’ s annual summit. it is a privilege to be with you again. the world of payments is changing rapidly. it is a world of innovation, of changing business models and of investment that is reshaping our financial system. so it is an exciting time in the world of payments. the reserve bank has a broad mandate to help shape this changing world so that it works in the best interests of australian households and businesses. we do this through a combination of suasion, regulation and working with industry participants to help overcome the coordination issues that can bedevil payment systems. we also directly support innovation where we reasonably can and we are working with the government to make sure that the regulatory architecture is fit for purpose. australians expect payments to be fast, low cost, reliable and easy to use. at the rba, we share these expec tations. we want to see an australian payments system that is competitive, safe to use, and dynamic and innovative. this morning i would like to highlight some of the issues we are working on in support of these objectives. these include our efforts to : 1. lower the costs that merchants pay for payment services 2. support the development of australia ’ s fast payments system 3. lower the cost and increase the speed of international payments 4. support innovation that will help australia be well placed for the digital future. lowering payment costs for merchants through competition first, to merchant payment costs. this has been an area of focus for us for many years and progress has been made in reducing merchant costs. this first graph shows the average fees that merchants pay for the various types of card payments ( graph 1 ). in the mid - 2000s, merchants paid an average of 1. 4 per cent on mastercard and visa transactions. today, they pay 0. 7 per cent. the cost of accepting most other payment cards has also declined. graph 1 total merchant fees * per cent of transaction values acquired % % 2. 5 2. 5 american express 2. 0 2. 0 1. 5 1. 5 mastercard and visa 1. 0 mastercard and visa credit * * mastercard and visa debit * * 0. 5 1. 0 0. 5 eftpos 0. 0 * * * 0. 0 break in september 2020