dimitar bogov : activities and developments in eu payment systems address by mr dimitar bogov, governor of the national bank of the republic of macedonia, at the seventh international conference on payment and securities settlement systems, ohrid, 6 – 9july 20414. * * * ladies and gentlemen, esteemed colleagues, it is a great honor and privilege to open the seventh conference on payment and securities settlement systems. this conference has had an international character for several years now, and this year, the list of participants and guests is even broader. apart from the national bank of the republic of macedonia, we must give due credit to the central bank of the netherlands and the central bank of portugal for making this conference a success. without their support and active participation, the quality of the conference would not be at the same level. therefore, i would like to acknowledge the traditional cooperation of the national bank of the republic of macedonia with the central bank of the netherlands and the central bank of portugal, and at the same time to salute this year ’ s participation of the representatives of the central banks from central, eastern and southeastern europe, as well as representatives of the committee on payment and settlement systems at the bank for international settlements, euroclear and commerzbank. to us, the perennial active participation of the representatives from the domestic payment system is of great importance as well. esteemed colleagues from the financial sector! allow me to tackle several important aspects that will be included in our discussion in the days ahead of us. first, the conference will be opened by promoting the red book of the payment, clearing and settlement systems of the republic of macedonia, which was issued at the end of last year, in cooperation with the committee on payment and settlement systems at the bank for international settlements ( bis ). this publication is important for the republic of macedonia because it further improves the understanding, at both national and international level, of the functioning of the payment and securities settlement systems. at the same time, this project promoted the process of harmonization of the payment statistics of the national bank with the payment statistics of the european central bank, which is an ongoing process that includes other banks, and is expected to facilitate complete methodological unification and readiness to disseminate information in accordance with the requirements of the statistical system of the european central bank. allow me on this occasion to welcome mr. emanuel freire, who will promote the red book of the republic of macedonia and present the activities of the

##bits after 31 october 2012. although directive 2007 / 64 / ec of the european parliament and of the council of 13 november 2007 on payment services in the internal market amending directives 97 / 7 / ec, 2002 / 65 / ec, 2005 / 60 / ec and 2006 / 48 / ec and repealing directive 97 / 5 / ec ( oj l 319, 5. 12. 2007, pp. 1 - 36 ). regulation ( ec ) no 2560 / 2001 of the european parliament and of the council of 19 december 2001 on crossborder payments in euro ( oj l 344, 28. 12. 2001, pp. 13 - 16 ). joint statement by the european commission and the european central bank clarifying certain principles underlying a future sepa direct debit ( sdd ) business model, 24 march 2009. this guidance falls short of the expectations of some national banking communities, we now have clarity in the market. i very much welcome, therefore, the subsequent decision of the european payments council ( epc ) to launch the sdd scheme in november 2009. as regards the migration end - date for both sepa credit transfers and sepa direct debits, let me emphasize that the definition of an ambitious but realistic migration end - date is a key factor to provide certainty, to speed up the migration process, to reduce the cost of maintaining dual systems and to limit the “ wait - and - see ” attitude. moreover, the possibility of setting earlier national end - dates will ensure that migration does not slow down in certain countries. i would also like to say a few words on e - payments and m - payments, the “ newcomers ” in the sepa world. an e - payment, is an internet banking payment, but has the additional feature that the web - merchant receives a payment confirmation in real time. an m - payment is initiated on a mobile phone and could be used for both proximity and remote transactions. sepa provides a unique opportunity for a break - through regarding these e and m - payments, building on the basic sct and sdd schemes, and on sepa for cards. linking up with the cards dossier, e - payments could be the answer to the security concerns many professionals and consumers have in the field of “ card - not - present ” transactions. in the domain of e and m - payments, banks will, of course, face fierce competition from other market players. therefore, i see the risk that banks may lose