remarks in this context. we are in the process of building europe ’ s financial market infrastructure for tomorrow. building it on individual or national solutions is anachronistic as these will no longer meet the needs of the market. europeans demand services that are safe and efficient and give them pan - european access. we therefore need to apply common standards that work on a pan - european basis. the same principle was agreed when we built the single euro payments area – sepa – and that is why sepa uses the global standard iso 20022. the eurosystem also uses this standard for the infrastructures it operates – be it t2s1 or tips2, as well as upgrades to target2 or its new collateral management system. looking at the digital transformation and innovation under way, i urge all market participants to plan their investments based on common and future - oriented standards that ensure pan - european accessibility. the regulatory level playing field in order to increase competition in the area of payments, eu legislators introduced “ payment institutions ”, a new category of payment service providers, in the first payment services 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches directive. these institutions are allowed to provide payment services, and psd2 states that pis and ais fall under the definition of payment services. providers of such services have to be duly authorised and supervised. i heard from some bankers occasionally that there was an issue of level playing field between new tpp entrants and incumbent banks. tpps, they claim, face a lighter regulatory regime than do banks. in this context, let me just say that psd2 as well as banking legislation govern the respective activities and that an institutional licence is required to conduct them, which implies that the entities will be supervised in line with the risks involved. payment institutions are only allowed to provide a limited set of services, i. e. payment services. they are not allowed to take deposits and are only allowed to hold funds for the provision of payments. credit institutions, by contrast, have a much wider scope of activities than payment institutions ; they can engage in the whole spectrum of banking activities, including the holding of deposits and the granting of loans. thus, while banks and payment institutions are indeed subject to different authorisation and supervisory criteria, this does not per se mean that there is an unlevel playing field. i have the feeling that those bankers who complain about the playing field forget that some of their colleagues in the bank perform activities that go far beyond the provision of

, for the time being, the main scenario for the euro area remains that economic growth is expected to return to rates close to potential in the course of 2003. in fact, this expectation is consistent with all forecasts published by international organisations. private forecasters, on the whole, also seem to share the same view. moreover, financial markets have shown signs of stabilisation in recent weeks following a period of considerable turbulence. the expectation of an improvement in economic activity in the euro area is contingent on a recovery of growth in private consumption, supported by a reduction in actual and perceived inflation rates. this expectation is also based on a projected gradual recovery of the world economy and export growth which, together with the low level of interest rates, should help to strengthen investment. nevertheless, the uncertainty surrounding this scenario remains high. it is therefore very difficult, at this juncture, to predict the timing and strength of the economic upswing, both in the euro area and globally. turning to recent price developments, in september annual hicp inflation was 2. 1 %. for october, eurostat's flash estimate indicates an annual hicp inflation rate of 2. 2 %. this increase is again likely to reflect developments in energy prices, although no detailed information is available at present. looking at price developments for the remainder of 2002 and the early part of next year, despite the recent decline in oil prices, some upward impact may occur reflecting base effects and country - specific developments - such as increases in indirect taxes or specific developments in services prices. although difficult to anticipate, particularly due to the volatility of oil prices, a further increase in the annual rates of inflation around the turn of the year and a delay in the return to inflation rates below 2 % cannot be ruled out. however, this further increase should only be temporary. beyond the very short term, we consider that both the euro exchange rate, which has strengthened since early this year, and the overall economic environment are still contributing towards reducing inflationary pressure. moreover, there should also be a further unwinding of the indirect effects of previous increases in oil prices and other factors that have added to the stickiness of the annual rate of hicp inflation excluding unprocessed food and energy prices. however, for inflation rates to fall below 2 % in the course of 2003 and to remain in line with price stability thereafter, as indicated by recent forecasts, it is crucial that oil prices do not increase sharply again and that the upward