setting high regulatory standards. finally, european action needs to be fully legitimised. as part of our inter - institutional agreement with the european parliament and of our memorandum of understanding with the council, we are committed to very high standards of accountability, which compare favourably at international level. but let us not forget that our legitimacy crucially depends on the ability to fulfil the mandate that was democratically assigned to us. this requires our constant attention and continuous effort. conclusion let me conclude. while we celebrate today an important achievement, we need to be humble for the future and to ensure that we deliver on our tasks, old and new. the ecb has at the core of its mandate the protection of price stability. we now need to protect the economy in one additional way, by preventing excessive risks in the banking sector. protecting our fellow citizens as well as businesses from the dire effects of the crisis was the driving force behind the ‘ four presidents ’ report ’, which established a roadmap towards a genuine economic and monetary union. dear herman, you were the chef d ’ orchestre of our quartet. i believe it is no exaggeration to say that you have left your mark on history by masterfully conducting the discussions between european leaders which led to the creation of the banking union. this has been an inspiring first movement. while we enjoy today ’ s short entr ’ acte, we should also look ahead and prepare for the movements still to come, as we progress together towards a genuine economic and monetary union. bis central bankers ’ speeches

remarks in this context. we are in the process of building europe ’ s financial market infrastructure for tomorrow. building it on individual or national solutions is anachronistic as these will no longer meet the needs of the market. europeans demand services that are safe and efficient and give them pan - european access. we therefore need to apply common standards that work on a pan - european basis. the same principle was agreed when we built the single euro payments area – sepa – and that is why sepa uses the global standard iso 20022. the eurosystem also uses this standard for the infrastructures it operates – be it t2s1 or tips2, as well as upgrades to target2 or its new collateral management system. looking at the digital transformation and innovation under way, i urge all market participants to plan their investments based on common and future - oriented standards that ensure pan - european accessibility. the regulatory level playing field in order to increase competition in the area of payments, eu legislators introduced “ payment institutions ”, a new category of payment service providers, in the first payment services 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches directive. these institutions are allowed to provide payment services, and psd2 states that pis and ais fall under the definition of payment services. providers of such services have to be duly authorised and supervised. i heard from some bankers occasionally that there was an issue of level playing field between new tpp entrants and incumbent banks. tpps, they claim, face a lighter regulatory regime than do banks. in this context, let me just say that psd2 as well as banking legislation govern the respective activities and that an institutional licence is required to conduct them, which implies that the entities will be supervised in line with the risks involved. payment institutions are only allowed to provide a limited set of services, i. e. payment services. they are not allowed to take deposits and are only allowed to hold funds for the provision of payments. credit institutions, by contrast, have a much wider scope of activities than payment institutions ; they can engage in the whole spectrum of banking activities, including the holding of deposits and the granting of loans. thus, while banks and payment institutions are indeed subject to different authorisation and supervisory criteria, this does not per se mean that there is an unlevel playing field. i have the feeling that those bankers who complain about the playing field forget that some of their colleagues in the bank perform activities that go far beyond the provision of