with retail payment systems in the spring of 2002, we published a policy document that provides an account of our responsibilities in the payment system area. in this document, we discuss our earlier work in this area and premises and plans for future work. norges bank monitors developments in the market and documents this in its annual report on payment systems. the report was the first of its kind and has received international recognition. the statistics in the report are based largely on voluntary reporting from the key participants in the norwegian payment system, and we are very grateful for their cooperation. it is the banking industry that makes decisions about the use of standards and about infrastructure development. norges bank will closely monitor the work and emphasise that standards and infrastructure be designed in a way that does not inhibit competition. which requirements should be satisfied by new payment systems? innovation and development of new payment systems that satisfy new needs are important to maintaining efficiency in the norwegian retail payment system over time. this requires that banks continue to develop their range of payment services. when new payment services are developed, it is desirable to retain the common infrastructure. this implies that all systems are based on the same technology or that there is a common interface that allows the systems to communicate without any problems. to ensure efficiency in the market, open solutions which allow competition for production and delivery of services will be an advantage. competition for production of services may conflict with exploitation of economies of scale. norges bank will place considerable emphasis on the existence of competition for delivery of these services to the users. we want new payment services to be priced according to the same principles as today. in other words, prices should reflect the expected unit costs in the long term. the safety of new payment systems must also be satisfactory. this means that customers must feel confident that they will not be exposed to misuse when they use a payment instrument and that they can be sure that their payments reach the payees at the agreed time. this places stringent demands on the technical design of the services and on operational reliability and back - up solutions provided by those responsible for operations. vis - a - vis customers, it is always the banks that are responsible for the payment services'compliance with safety and operational reliability requirements. regardless of whether the services are purchased from a subcontractor, it is the banks that are responsible in relation to the customers. in other words, it is not possible to outsource the responsibility even though the operation has been outsourced. conclusion international fora are

interested in the norwegian payment system. we receive praise for the efficiency of the system. the banking industry must be given the credit for this because they have sought out efficient solutions and have cooperated on system development both within the industry and with the central bank. the cooperation between the central bank and the banks on gathering transaction, price and cost data is considered unique and extremely valuable. we hope that norway will continue to be a leader in developing the range of services and that the effective cooperation will continue in the pursuit of our common goal : an efficient payment system. thank you for your attention.