strongly urge the appropriate authorities to work on this issue so that the clarity needed at the european level can be provided. an additional european card scheme – which is as safe and efficient as the best performing schemes today – is a necessary element of an integrated and competitive cards market. new year ’ s resolution number four : let ’ s innovate europe is still a patchwork of national online markets, and europeans are prevented from enjoying the benefits of a single digital market. traditional payment instruments still dominate payments for e - commerce. however, they were not designed to cope with the needs of the online world and often cannot be used for cross - border transactions. among these payment instruments, cash on delivery, credit transfers upon receipt of an invoice and the provision of card credentials to merchants play an important role. in all but a few countries, card transactions based on secure payment protocols and e - payments based on online banking are still in the minority or are only used for domestic transactions. we have to ensure that europe does not lose any more ground in e - commerce, compared with the united states and emerging online markets. therefore, there is a clear need for efficient, low cost, secure and readily available online payment solutions throughout europe – and ideally beyond. the potential for online payment solutions is great enough to offer scope both for secure card payments and for e - payments based on online banking. the ecb strongly supports the emergence of sepa - wide online e - payment solutions, such as those that already exist at the national level, for example in germany, austria and the netherlands. in my view, european wide implementation of such innovative ideas is very much needed. both increased security for “ card - not - present ” transactions and the introduction, throughout europe, of e - payments based on online banking will provide more payment options for users. and such developments will also address a problem that greatly concerns central banks : safety. i firmly believe that for “ online shopping ” the payments industry needs to deliver a solution that permits customers to pay for their purchases in a safe way. this brings me directly to the last of my proposed new year ’ s resolutions : new year ’ s resolution number five : let ’ s not forget about security the security of retail payments is key to ensuring that consumers and businesses place their trust and confidence in sepa. the risk - based approach applied by individual banks may not be sufficient to achieve the level of security that is required at the aggregate industry level. the reason for this is that

rules and a consistent application over time will reinforce the credibility of the process of euro area enlargement. this will, in turn, facilitate the sustainability of convergence. the framework is flexible enough to accommodate the country - specific features of all countries that want to adopt the euro. i would also like to emphasise that meeting the convergence criteria in a sustainable manner before joining the euro area is in the interest of all parties concerned and above all for the candidate countries themselves. i am now at your disposal for questions.