a significant contribution to the efficiency of european retail finance, as there will be one single payment system for all retail transactions, but potentially many service providers in competition with each other. indeed, we will no longer distinguish between “ national ” and “ cross - border ” euro payments. moreover, at a time when banks ’ other sources of income are more volatile, payment services can provide them with stable and regular revenue. so far it would appear that banks which act as universal banks have proven better able to weather the financial crisis than specialised banks. small and medium - sized enterprises ( smes ) rely on retail banks for payment services. as a result, it is the banks that know their customers best that will gain the most from sepa. however, it is important that they use this knowledge to expand their business by offering innovative value - added services to european enterprises. if smes can operate with minimal manual intervention, as well as paper and cash - free, they can focus on their business instead of on their payments. there are currently a number of initiatives aiming to align national differences and develop frameworks for specific value - added services, such as e - invoicing, online payments and mobile payment initiation. banks should use these frameworks to offer their clients payment services that facilitate end - to - end straight - through processing of all euro payments within europe. this will deliver banks a stable source of income and enterprises a more efficient payment process. market surveys show that awareness of sepa is increasing, but that not everyone is ready to use it. let me be perfectly clear : we should not use the financial market turbulence as an excuse to put sepa on hold. on the contrary, we should use sepa as an instrument for rationalisation and putting a new focus on the business of retail banking. sepa will contribute to the creation of a smooth and safe underlying payment infrastructure in this field. therefore, commitment to sepa is now more important than ever – for banks, enterprises and public administrations. awareness must be transformed into readiness. lessons learned from the financial turmoil with regard to market infrastructure resilience i would now like to move on to the lessons that we have learned from the financial market turmoil with regard to the resilience of our market infrastructures. the role of market infrastructures has not been covered very extensively in the policy debate on the financial turmoil so far. there would seem to be two reasons for this relative lack of attention. first, the financial distress clearly originated from shortcoming

the eu agenda : target2 - securities ( t2s ) and the single euro payments area ( sepa ). the t2s project is a project of the eurosystem and was developed in close consultation with all relevant stakeholders. it is a good example of the eurosystem ’ s capacity to advance european financial integration through the provision of central bank services. while sepa is a market - led initiative to spur financial integration, the eurosystem has actively supported this project, together with the european commission and ecofin. why do we as a paneuropean public authority engage in these types of projects? the eurosystem is both a paneuropean public authority and, in its capacity as a central bank, an active market participant, and, therefore, generally in a good position to act as a catalyst for private sector activities which encourage european financial integration. indeed, this is particularly the case in the field of market infrastructures. it is one of the eurosystem ’ s basic tasks under the maastricht treaty to promote the smooth functioning of payment systems, and the eurosystem acts as both operator and overseer of these systems. because we offer services to all market participants which use the € as a transaction currency we see the need for integration of systems and harmonisation of rules, regulations and priorities. why – 10 years after the introduction of the € – we still do not have an adequate infrastructure? everyday european citizens – corporates and consumers pay much more than citizens in the us for getting cross - border security services. why do we need there cross - border services? because financial integration allows better risk sharing and this benefits economic development. target2 - securities let us now examine t2s in more detail. over two years ago now the eurosystem embarked on this project in an effort to meet the increasing demand for an integrated and harmonised european settlement infrastructure and to reduce the high settlement costs in the eu, especially for cross - border securities transactions. t2s will be a multi - currency platform used by central securities depositories ( csds ) for the settlement of securities transactions in central bank money. the participating csds will maintain legal relations with their customers and continue to perform custody and notary functions. the t2s project will make cross - border securities settlement transactions in central bank money as secure, efficient and cheap as domestic settlement transactions are today. t2s will build on and benefit from the target2 system thereby combining cash settlements