to find alternatives to this fragmented landscape. appropriate solutions may not be based on the european schemes, but they may be provided by large platforms which can offer the desired network effects thanks to their large global customer base. but there are currently only a limited number of providers allowing for payments at pan - european level. this leads me to the following question : how should we consider the dependency on only a handful of big payment providers from a competition and diversity point of view? in the long run, a lack of competition may reduce the quality of services to the detriment of their users. isn ’ t there a need for truly pan - european instant payment solutions, which would offer support to many payment providers? the sct inst scheme – a pan - european scheme for instant payments – and the pan - european market infrastructure for processing such payments, like tips, represent a unique opportunity for developing a truly pan - european solution for instant payments at the point - of - interaction. such solution could be designed to be as convenient as existing solutions at point - of - interaction that are based on other payment instruments. the inherent benefits of instant payments would thus materialise for all stakeholders. consumers would be able to use them anywhere in europe and eventually also at global level. users would also have a consistent payment experience within and between countries. by accepting instant payments at the point - of - interaction, merchants across europe, too, would benefit from more efficient liquidity management and higher cost efficiencies. those merchants or other businesses that today do not accept cards due to their associated costs could offer users the opportunity to pay electronically. and finally banks could also benefit from higher cost efficiencies and generate new revenue streams. they would also be in a position to design such a solution under their own governance according to the needs of their customers. to make this vision a reality, further actions from market participants are needed. these actions do not need to be revolutionary. as i said before, europe already has with sct inst scheme and tips some of the necessary building blocks in place to develop such a solution. in order to realise the potential of such a european solution, cooperation is once again essential. banks, merchants and other relevant stakeholders across europe should work together to find the best way forward. increasing efficiency in wholesale payments 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches let me now briefly turn to the area of wholesale payments and our plans to increase efficiency in this segment. since well before tips, the eurosystem

sabine lautenschlager : transformation of the retail and wholesale payments landscape in europe speech by ms sabine lautenschlager, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the european association of co - operative banks, berlin, 14 june 2019. * * * the european payments market has come a long way since 1992 when the maastricht treaty laid the foundation for the euro as a single currency. the road may have occasionally been long and winding but the facts speak for themselves : today, the euro is the second most used currency in the world and the single euro payments area ( sepa ) which extends beyond the eu affects the lives and businesses of over 500 million people, 20 million companies and 4, 000 payment service providers. the european payments market generates more than 130 billion non - cash payments per year, representing approximately one - quarter of the global payments business. for more than 20 years, europe has strived to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the payments market. substantial achievements have been made over the years and what some people used to consider challenging, or even impossible, has now become part of our everyday lives. the sepa project is a perfect example. having enjoyed the ease of sepa payments since 2014, we can hardly remember a time when credit transfers and direct debits functioned smoothly within countries but not necessarily across borders. like many of europe ’ s other achievements, advances in retail payments are all too easily taken for granted. it took approximately 12 years to harmonise credit transfers and direct debits across europe, but today ’ s users can rely on a single account for their payments business within the sepa area and freely choose payment service providers based on quality and costs rather than location. and competition between payment service providers now takes place on a level playing field. so what has been the key driver of past success? beyond doubt, it is the cooperation between payment stakeholders in europe. since the payments market is a network industry, cooperation and coordination among market players are of utmost importance. we at the ecb are well aware of the importance of european - wide cooperation. in 2013, we established the euro retail payments board ( erpb ) with the objective of further deepening such cooperation. this high - level strategic body brings together the supply and demand sides of the european retail payments market. a great deal has been achieved under the umbrella of the erpb thanks to the efforts of all involved and i am pleased to see that further work