yves mersch : reaping the benefits of payment services in a new regulatory environment speech by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the european banking federation's executive committee, frankfurt am main, 22 february 2018. * * * the revised payment services directive ( psd2 ) has featured high on the agenda of the payments industry for some time and it will continue to do so. the regulatory technical standards ( rts ) on strong customer authentication and common and secure open standards of communication, which have been submitted by the european commission to the co - legislators for scrutiny, strike a fair balance between the previously diverging views of the different players. they should soon be finalised and then published in the official journal. the new legislative framework will support innovation and competition in retail payments ; it will enhance the security of payment transactions and the protection of consumer data. it will introduce major changes to which all payment service providers ( psps ) will have to adapt, and i encourage all psps to ensure the highest level of security in their payment services and adopt the requirements of the rts ahead of time. banks should also grasp the opportunity to work towards a single and standardised interface to communicate with third - party providers ( tpps ) across europe in a safe and efficient manner. cooperation with tpps and users is crucial in this context in order to deliver innovative, efficient and competitive services to the people of europe. let me explain this in more detail. security requirements during the transition period as co - chair of the european forum on the security of retail payments ( secure pay ), the ecb has contributed in particular to the rts in respect of strong customer authentication and common and secure open standards of communication, the guidelines on security measures for operational and security risks of payment services and the guidelines on major incident reporting. it is still involved in the finalisation of the guidelines on fraud data reporting requirements. now that member states have transposed or are about to transpose the psd2 and almost all pieces of secondary legislation have been finalised, i think we can say that the european market has taken a major step towards : increasing the protection of payment service users against fraud and possible abuses of their financial information, fostering the resilience of psps through harmonised minimum security requirements, and towards enabling competition in the field of payment services by introducing innovative payment services such as payment initiation services, account information services and issuing cardbased payment instruments where a

been made to the united states and the question has been asked as to why europe us unable to effect as strong expansionary measures. many reasons exist that make comparisons with the united states infeasible. firstly, the expansion of the us public deficit is largely due to an increase in military expenses, which can hardly be regarded as counter - cyclical expansionary economic policy. furthermore, there was, and still is, substantially more genuine room for manoeuvre in the us economy in this respect. contrary to the euro area, us public finances were clearly in surplus when the country entered into recession. for demographic reasons alone the outlook for us public finances clearly outweighs that for the euro area. furthermore, the tax rate is markedly lower in the us in comparison to the euro area, which also gives the united states substantially latitude in taxation. finnish economy if the expected recovery of the world economy begins, the finnish economy will, without doubt, follow suit. however, forecasts suggest that the growth rate would only return to a 2 – 3 % level. one trend in which finland has taken the lead in international comparisons is population ageing. the problem of ageing is not exclusive to finland, but it has started to manifest itself here exceptionally early. in effect, the increase in labour growth in finland has virtually come to a halt and is expected to make a downwards turn in the near future. this will inevitably be reflected in all sectors of the finnish economic policy decision - making. in the next few decades, population ageing will pressure finland into increasing spending on its public sector, amounting altogether to some 6 % of the gdp. the funds accumulated in the pension scheme cover only one third of these upward pressures. can the remainder be met with increases in taxation? i doubt it. in fact, there is increased pressure to reduce taxes further in the future. another easily distinguishable future trend is tightening competition over the location of companies. finnish companies are increasingly a part of a global business world with operations in finland. in such a world the relocation of operations to places where costs can be kept to a minimum becomes the norm. a small, expensive, rapidly ageing and remote country is hardly in the best possible position when an international company is contemplating where to locate operations. labour mobility is gradually changing from a theoretical possibility into a reality that shapes economic policy. what kind of prospects does finland have for succeeding in international competition? political stability and security, a reliable legal system, a still solid infrastructure