a day, seven days a week, and is expected to be ready at the end of 2018. it will also be prepared to be able to handle other currencies than the euro. one alternative could therefore be for 21 see “ payment patterns in sweden ” at www. riksbank. se / sv / statistik / betalningar - sedlar - och - mynt / betalningsstatistik /. swedish retail and wholesale council ( 2018 ). “ nar slutar svenska handlare ta emot kontanter? ” ( when will swedish traders stop accepting cash? ) research report 2018 : 1 http : / / handelsradet. se / wp - content / uploads / 2018 / 01 / sammanfattning - 2018 _ 12. pdf. 23 cash payments are instant : when the seller has received the payment in the form of cash, the payment is settled. if cash is unavailable, a need arises for the rapid transfer of money between different participants in other ways. swish is an example of such a solution. 24 companies combining financial services with software technology. 25 retail payments are payments of lower value and between private individuals, companies and authorities. a distinction is made in retail payments between cash payments and payments in the form of account transfers. 26 sveriges riksbank “ the swedish retail payment market ”. riksbank studies, june 2013. 9 the riksbank to open a central bank account in swedish kronor in the european system for instant payments. the ecb ’ s menu of systems for creating a single market for payments will mean that economies of scale can be utilised even more and is thus basically a positive development. there are also plans among some nordic banks to create a pan - nordic payment infrastructure with joint products. however, at present, we have too few details around these plans to be able to express an opinion on it. what we see here is the ongoing centralisation of payment systems generated by globalisation. there has been a movement within the euro area from national systems and a fundamentally fragmented market to centralised, cross - border systems. deregulation in the 1990s and 2000s contributed towards the integration of the banking market in the eu. and now the same thing is happening to the payments - infrastructure side. the european commission intends to propose an amendment of the ec regulation on cross - border payments in euro to reduce fees for cross - border transactions in all

future. all major swedish banks, clearing organisations, the swedish national debt office and the riksbank are participants in the riksbank ’ s rix system where weekly turnover corresponds to a little less than sweden ’ s gdp. in practice, this means that participants have accounts in the riksbank ’ s system in which they regulate debts to each other via transfers between their rix accounts. a bank's balance in its rix account forms a risk - free claim on the riksbank. at some point during the day, the money thus ends up on the riksbank's balance sheet, which is the meaning of the term ‘ central bank money ’, as i explained previously. the system has been constructed to manage major payments between the dominant players in the market in a secure manner. private persons ’ payments are lumped together into larger amounts before they pass through the system. it has been optimised to manage a smaller amount of payments of larger amounts with a very high level of security. the mean value of a payment sent through the system is about 35 million kronor. 19 the riksbank also has regular contact with all participants, who also participate in training sessions, crisis exercises and so on. as the riksbank and the banks must have personnel on site, opening hours are currently restricted to normal office hours. it is conceivable that the banks would have their own system to regulate payments with each other. but this would increase the counterparty risks in the financial system. if a private player were to run such a system, all participating banks 18 swish is owned by getswish ab but administrated by bankgirot. as of april 2018. current statistics on payments can be found on the riksbank ’ s website, www. riksbank. se / sv / finansiell - stabilitet / betalningssystemet - rix / statistik - over - betalningar - i - rix / 2018 /. 7 would have large claims on that player, just as they have on the riksbank at present. if such a private player were to enter bankruptcy, this money would be lost. that risk does not exist when the central bank runs the system. in addition, the central bank can supply the necessary liquidity that allows payments to function without friction. the central bank can thus function as ‘ the banks ’ bank ’. it is therefore common for the settlement