that could assume a greater role of the government and the central bank. we do not assume that this will be the case because the efficiently working self - regulation model might bring better solutions than a model enforced through regulations. regardless of the target model for sepa implementation, the national bank of poland declares its readiness to support the process. important activities on the part of the nbp, as regards sepa - related works, include the strengthening of the infrastructure for cross - border euro settlements and the participation in target2 system, as well as the support of the implementation of sepa standards in the polish payment system. in order to achieve these goals, it is necessary to follow the works undertaken by the banking community in relation to sepa on the eu and national level. it is also important to foster cooperation on the government level to prepare and implement possible new regulations for the banking sector. the payment system council can further play an important role in this respect. sepa is a crucial challenge for the polish banking sector and for many clients of that sector. this is why it is critical to hold wide - scale consultations not only to develop a vision of sepa pl that would be coherent with the european vision of sepa, but also to take into consideration specific niche needs of polish entities. many questions, including the following, should be answered when developing the vision of sepa pl : - what is the target model of the european payment infrastructure and how to make sure that economies of scale are used on the single payment market in order to lower the costs of services for consumers, the appropriate competition is simultaneously provided and specific niche needs of each country are met ; - what is the best pace for implementing changes, considering the lack of straightforward declarations of the government regarding the date of poland ’ s accession to the euro area ; the experience gained so far suggests that the maintenance of the national payment infrastructure is beneficial for poland. for instance, the launch of euro - elixir and sorbnet - euro significantly reduced fees for cross - border payments in correspondent banking. so far, the decrease in prices has benefited mainly banks while their clients have felt the positive effects to a lesser extent. the national bank of poland hopes that clients of banks will soon more strongly experience positive price developments brought by the modern, safe and effective infrastructure of euro payments. such a development would indicate undoubtedly that the national bank of poland should strengthen its activities to counter the marginalisation of the polish settlement and payment infrastructure because the existence of a

krzysztof rybinski : single euro payments area from the point of view of the national bank of poland address by mr krzysztof rybinski, deputy president of the national bank of poland, at the conference of the polish bank association, single euro payments area, sepa organisational structure in poland – sepa pl, klub bankowca ( bankers ’ club ), warsaw, 10 october 2006. * * * ladies and gentlemen, not all of you may know that the first bank that fulfilled many functions of a modern central bank was established in 1609. it was the bank of amsterdam. this bank issued its own money, managed its supply through open market operations and operated an rtgs system for large volume payments, although the meaning of the term “ system ” was slightly different four hundred years ago as compared to its current meaning 1. four hundred years ago, the rtgs system of the bank of amsterdam completed payments equal to the netherlands ’ gdp within three weeks. today, many countries need less than a week for the same task. bankers who managed floren ’ s agio in the seventeenth century could have never dreamt that four hundred years later we all would not only use a single european currency, but also implement standards of the single euro payments area, or sepa. sepa is to be real. it is part of a vision of united europe where payment services are part of the single market. you can rest assured that payment systems of european countries will cease to be national payment systems sooner or later. as intended by the european union decision - makers, in a few years cross - border euro payments will be as unified and cheap as is the case for cashless money settlements in national payment systems now. from the point of view of the central bank, sepa should be beneficial first of all to the citizens of europe, but it is also to contribute to the development of the payment services market. as politicians refine their visions of united europe, tax - payers ask questions about the price. in the long term, the balance of benefits and costs of united europe is undoubtedly favourable. the same pertains to the idea of sepa. however, it is worth remembering that the final shape of the european payment system should be determined, to the largest possible extent, by the market that will choose the best solution for banks ’ clients. the assumptions made in order to streamline and increase the efficiency of cashless turnover in euro are well