, particularly in some segments such as the private bond markets. as a result of the increase in trading activity, market participants were able to carry out large transactions within a short period of time more easily and with lower costs. hence, in 1999 not only bid - ask spreads but also other indicators pointed towards an increase in the depth and liquidity of financial markets in the euro area. the changes in transaction costs are particularly notable on the unsecured money market. in the context of the conduct of monetary policy, the creation of an area - wide operational framework for the refinancing operations of the eurosystem has modified the micro - structure of the money market considerably. despite the continued use of different trading systems, the money market of the euro has gained a clear cross - border orientation, largely thanks to the establishment of target. very soon after the introduction of the euro, typical bid - ask spreads quoted on the unsecured money market of the euro became as narrow as in the most liquid money markets at the global level. furthermore, swaps indexed on the overnight reference rate, as measured by the eonia, which have become a very widely used instrument, also offer particularly small bid - ask spreads. it is therefore clear that the unsecured money market of the euro has become fully integrated and is functioning well. however, as already mentioned, there is still some scope for further development in the repo market. in other segments of the euro - denominated interest rate markets and in the equity market, the range of financial instruments available to market participants expanded markedly in 1999. for example, the most widely traded short - term interest rate futures denominated in euro are contracts indexed on the three - month euribor. for these instruments, the range of available delivery dates currently goes up to five years. this is less than the ten years available for three - month libor futures traded for the united states. however, this is wider than the range of maturities which used to be available in the predecessor currencies of the euro. from the point of view of monetary policy, the market prices of such products provide information of interest about market expectations. the development of the mortgage bond market constitutes another example. in several countries of the euro area, legal texts were recently enacted which permitted the development of a market for mortgage bonds similar to the german pfandbriefe. new issues of non - german pfandbriefe have been very successful, as there was a

therefore, an additional european card scheme can have a lot of benefits. three initiatives are currently under way with a view to creating an additional european card scheme : the euro alliance of payment schemes ( eaps ), monnet and payfair. further initiatives are obviously not excluded. it seems that the development of a proper financing model is probably the most important issue from banks ’ point of view. and here again, uncertainty about multilateral interchange fees is considered an obstacle to any progress in this field. the criticism that there is a lack of clarity in this area does not fully recognise the commitments made recently by mastercard and visa europe on multilateral interchange fees. one should also recognise that the european as well as national competition authorities have already provided some guidance. however, here too, regulation might provide a solution of last resort and a possibility to look at the business model in the context of other business rules and market circumstances that presently stand in the way of an effective market providing efficient services against optimal prices to consumers and other customers. overall, i believe that an additional european scheme – safe and efficient as the best performing existing ones – is a necessary element of an integrated and competitive market. separating card schemes from processing entities the concept of separating schemes from processing entities is one of the core elements of sepa to guarantee open access. the sepa credit transfer and direct debit schemes are built on this principle. this concept should be applied in the card market, too. indeed, banks should have a range of options to choose from as regards the processing of card payments. the separation of schemes from processing entities has many dimensions, comprising operational, informational, financial / accounting, commercial and legal separation. major efforts need to be made by individual schemes in order to achieve effective separation in these various domains. three things are needed in the area of card processing. 1. first, the processing of card transactions should use the same set of message standards as the processing of direct debits and credit transfers ( i. e. the iso 20022 standard ). 2. second, a framework is needed for the processing of card transactions. 3. and third, the various infrastructures need to develop the rules and standards that are needed in order to establish technical interoperability. in december 2009 the european payments council ( epc ) agreed to update the pe - ach / csm framework to include card transactions. however, work still needs to take off on this. cards standardization another important issue is cards standardisation