yves mersch : challenges of retail payments innovation speech by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the belgian financial forum, organised by the national bank of belgium, brussels, 26 october 2015. * * * introduction i am sure that almost all of you in this room today have a smartphone in your pocket. with the smartphone, you feel as if you have the world at your fingertips : you can call or message anyone across the globe, access up - to - the - minute information and news on the internet, and stay entertained by downloading music, films or books. you can do all this at any time of day, wherever you are. this is the smartphone ’ s great innovation : making communication, information and entertainment available 24 / 7, on the spot, around the globe. i am also sure that all of you have a wallet in your pocket, containing banknotes, coins and some credit or debit cards. you use these to pay for things, but there are limitations. what if there were none? what if you could pay anyone, anytime, wherever you are? be it with cash, by card, online or with your smartphone? and what if all these payments were instant? in a nutshell, this is what i will talk about today : how we can make this happen. we already have the euro, making it possible for you to pay with the same banknotes and coins throughout the euro area. now we want to make cashless payments as easy, fast, and far reaching as smartphone services. users – be they consumers, retailers or businesses – do not see why payments cannot be instant and boundless like e - mails, text messages or whatsapp. what are the challenges of innovation in cashless payments? how do public authorities contribute to the process? who is involved in the market, and how can a level playing field be ensured? how should innovative payment services be designed? these are some of the questions i will address. to give you a broad roadmap, in the first part of my speech i will talk about the key institutions involved in bringing innovation to the payments arena. the eurosystem, which comprises the european central bank and the national central banks of the euro area, plays a key role, as does the european commission and the european retail payments board. the second part of my speech will address the supply side of the market, i. e. the retail payments service providers. here

of the ssm when carrying out the tasks conferred upon it, the ecb should act independently and should be accountable to the european parliament and to the council. the ecb should submit each year to the european parliament, the council, the commission and the eurogroup a report on the execution of the tasks conferred upon it. furthermore, the ecb will also be accountable to national parliaments. as concerns the separation from the monetary policy function, the ecb will carry out the supervisory tasks without prejudice to, and separately from, its tasks relating to monetary policy and from any other tasks. the staff involved in carrying out the tasks conferred on the ecb by the regulation should be organisationally separated and subject to separate reporting lines. finally, let me underline that the effective conduct of financial stability policy requires a welldefined decision - making process as well. in this regard, the planning and execution of the bis central bankers ’ speeches tasks will be fully undertaken by the supervisory board which will be an internal body composed of a chair and vice chair, four representatives appointed by the ecb, and one representative of the national competent authority in each participating member state. it is important to highlight from a macro - prudential policy perspective that in cases where the competent authority is not a central bank, the member of the supervisory board may decide to bring a representative from the member state ’ s central bank. thus, central banks may also have a word in the decision - making process. note that, for the purposes of the voting procedure, the representatives of the authorities of any one member state should together be considered as one member. the supervisory board will carry out preparatory work regarding the supervisory tasks conferred upon the ecb and propose to the governing council of the ecb complete draft decisions to be adopted by the latter, pursuant to a procedure to be established by the ecb. bis central bankers ’ speeches