the use of payment cards will be more efficient, as consumers will be able to use the same card for all euro payments. this will reduce the necessity for people to carry cash. innovative services can be offered to consumers irrespective of national borders. the long - term goal of the banking industry is that the sepa payment instruments will only be used in electronic form. payments can then be easily combined with other e - services in the case of both individual and corporate clients. these include e - invoicing, mobile or internet payment initiation, airline e - tickets, credit advice or e - reconciliation. as a consequence, consumers will spend less time handling payments. everything will be easier, faster and cheaper... in the long term. payment cards are becoming a favourite payment instrument with consumers, and are increasingly replacing cheques and cash payments. the use of cards is thus expected to grow in the future. thanks to the creation of a single euro payments area, acquirers will be able to process all sepacompliant card payments, even across borders. in the sepa environment, merchants will be able to choose any card payment processing entity in the euro ; this will increase competition and reduce costs. point - of - sale terminals in the euro area will become increasingly standardised. as a consequence, there will be a wider choice of terminal providers, and merchants will be able to accept a wider range of cards with a single terminal. the increased competition between payment card systems should also drive down fees. this is a vision of anticipated benefits for an integrated europe, but the questions i would like to ask the panelists and all of you today are as follows : will sepa reinforce the competitiveness of polish entrepreneurs? ; how fast should we act? ; what roles are there to be played and who should play them so as to ensure the success of the polish economy, enterprises and consumers in the sepa era? it seems to me that these are the key questions to be answered now so that forum sepa polska could develop, in the months to come, an optimal strategy for launching new payment products in the polish market. let ’ s also have a look at our own local situation. by providing new payment instruments and euro area - wide infrastructures, sepa will ensure that banks expand their business and compete on a euro area level, as any bank can offer its services more easily to any individual in the euro area. banks can also expand their business by offering their customers

krzysztof rybinski : sepa and the payment system in poland speech by mr krzysztof rybinski, deputy president of the national bank of poland, at the 13th bank forum “ regulatory changes in european banking – outcomes for banks and the economy in poland ”, warsaw, 14 march 2007. * * * welcome to the session devoted to the sepa project – single euro payments area – in the context of the polish payment system. when you google sepa, the first website on the results list is the site of the scottish environment protection agency, but what closely follows is the ecb ’ s website on sepa ( single euro payments area ). the pagerank of both these sites is 6, which means that they are important in the internet. since the introduction of the euro banknotes and coins in 2002, consumers have been able to make cash payments throughout the euro area from a single purse using a single currency. the sepa project represents the next major step towards closer european integration ; it will allow consumers to make cashless payments throughout the euro area from a single account under the same basic conditions, regardless of their location. in 2002, the banking industry took up this challenging project by creating the european payments council ( epc ). the epc is defining the new rules and procedures for euro payments. to do that, it has involved not only the stakeholders in the euro area, but also those in other countries of the european union, poland obviously included, as well as iceland, liechtenstein, norway and switzerland. communities outside the euro area will thus have the opportunity to participate in euro payment systems, and will be able to adopt sepa standards and practices, thereby contributing to the establishment of a single market for payment services. the epc plans first sepa products to come on the market at the beginning of the next year. therefore, today ’ s bank forum is an excellent opportunity for an in - depth discussion on the role and place of the polish payment infrastructure in the sepa world. ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased to present you the discussants of our panel, in alphabetical order : mr. ryszard druzynski, vice president of raiffeisen bank polska, mr. krzysztof kalicki, president of the management board of deutsche bank polska, mr. ronnie richardson, president of the management board of kredyt bank, mr. witold zielinski, vice president of the management