economic agents in an efficient and safe way, payment infrastructures are a key support to one of the core functions of money, namely money as a means of exchange. in the eu, infrastructures processing payments in euro consist in a number of arrangements, which are of different nature. for example, the exchange of payment orders in euro between financial intermediaries can be handled within multilateral systems or within the framework of correspondent banking bilateral arrangements. although there is a great number of arrangements that ensure money transfers between financial intermediaries, in practice, financial transfers tend to be concentrated on a few of them. thus, the largest volumes and values of payment orders are currently carried out in multilateral payment systems. on the basis of several surveys conducted by the eurosystem since 1999, we consider that the market share of these systems is nearly 80 %, both in terms of volume and value. however, we should not minimise the role of correspondent banking, which holds the remaining 20 % of the market. correspondent banking arrangements also show a high degree of concentration : out of all reporting banks to the eurosystem ’ s survey, the ten largest banks account for about 80 % of the overall value of correspondent banking transactions. moreover, correspondent activities of some banks are substantial and similar in size to those of some interbank funds transfer systems. the issue of the infrastructures diversity for payments in euro across the eu was raised prior to, and due to, the introduction of the euro. at that time, it was realised that diversity had drawbacks to the extent that it came together with a discrepancy of service level between national and cross border payments, at the expense of the latter. with respect to the objective of financial integration, it was clear that this situation could not be considered as an optimum. the issue was taken into account before the launch of the euro. the re - engineering of payments processing, aiming at notably closing identified efficiency and safety gaps between cross - border and national payment infrastructures, appeared as a pillar for ensuring a high degree of monetary and financial integration in europe. the eurosystem has been closely involved in lifting obstacles to the european financial integration in particular with respect to those related to payment infrastructures, in support of market initiatives, including notably those of the eba. the rationale for such an involvement is in line with the statutory role of the eurosystem. indeed, pursuant to the treaty, the responsibility of ensuring the smooth functioning of payment systems is one

times. across the euro area, we see about two dozen large banks which constantly outperform their peers. they are based in different countries, they are of different sizes, and they have different business models. so it is not about a single successful business model. it is about the whole set - up of how to do banking today. and, as these banks show, it is possible to succeed – that is encouraging, for us and for the banks. these are challenging times for banks ; there is no doubt about that. one thing is clear, though : tomorrow ’ s business models will look different from today ’ s. but hasn ’ t that always been true? 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches thank you for your attention. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches