best pursued in the area of customer interface. in our neighbouring countries sweden, denmark and the united kingdom, the situation is different. there has been broad cooperation in the area of instant payments in those countries. banks have been engaged in developing common solutions – not only in the development phase, but also in the application phase. in all these countries, instant payments are widely used. in sweden and denmark, they are the underlying solution for most mobile payments. the result is faster and cheaper payments. a common solution for instant payments is a step forward for both users and banks. at the same time, banks should think in terms of further development. one ambition should be to bis central bankers ’ speeches eliminate the risk that arises between banks when the payee receives the funds before bank settlement occurs. international experience shows that this can be done in several ways. a long - term goal should be that payments occur in real time both between users and between banks. this will require adjustments to settlement systems. in the near term, it is also possible to use today ’ s infrastructure to make payments faster. i have noted that the banking industry is working towards increasing the number of daily net settlements from four to five, and more payments will be settled individually and immediately. considerable work is underway under the aegis of finance norway and the new joint venture company bits, which may lead to faster payments. norges bank, for its part, will explore whether possible adjustments to the bank settlement system could enhance payment efficiency. norges bank will do its utmost. we will seek a dialogue with the financial industry in order to find good solutions. several aspects of mobile payments should be improved mobile payments are becoming increasingly common. new features are the customer interface and additional services tailored to customers ’ individual needs. the underlying payment chain is largely the same as earlier. so far mobile payments have primarily been used for transfers between private individuals or to charities, clubs and associations. in some cases, the payee receives the funds immediately, while in other cases it may take several days. for purchases in shops, cash and cards are fast and user - friendly payment instruments. this has probably held back the rise of mobile payments in shops, although they are rising there as well. a third area is mobile payments linked to online purchases. services are being developed in all three areas. a look at the conference programme indicates that we will be hearing more about that today. there are still some challenges facing mobile payments. most mobile payments are made using an international payment

jon nicolaisen : digital challenges for the payment system speech by mr jon nicolaisen, deputy governor of norges bank ( central bank of norway ), at the financial industry ’ s digital services conference, oslo, 9 june 2016. * * * introduction technology advances rapidly, giving rise to opportunities and challenges. norges bank will actively promote efficient solutions for payments and financial transactions. i presume that the participants at this conference have the same goal, so we have common interests in this area. the norwegian banking industry was among the first to adopt digital solutions. the giro systems were integrated and a common debit card system was put into place. the first internet bank giro was available already 20 years ago. internet giro payments and bankaxept card payments in shops are cheap, efficient and widely used. payment system costs in norway have been considerably lower than in most other countries for a long time. common solutions do not impede competition. banks and other operators have their own customer interfaces, services and prices. but underlying that are a common infrastructure and common standards. this provides economies of scale and accessible solutions for customers, regardless of where they hold an account. cooperation has rendered the payment system efficient and robust. new operators and new technology are now entering the payment market. this can, in principle, strengthen competition and improve efficiency. but it is important that the competition is rooted in a robust and cost - efficient common infrastructure. norges bank will actively pursue profitable solutions in the best interest of all the parties concerned. payments should become faster norway ’ s efficient payment system is a competitive advantage for the norwegian business sector. this is positive, but there is no room for complacency. other countries are catching up and may be ahead of us in some areas, in particular in terms of real time payments and the infrastructure for mobile payments. we have a job to do here. the norwegian banking industry has collectively developed a payment solution where money is immediately received by the payee, so - called instant payments. a common system offers several advantages : the solution is cost - efficient and ensures fast payment services for customers. all banks and their customers can use the solution and it is not owned by an individual private market participant. yet, to date, few banks offer instant payment services. this may be due to technical factors, or because mobile apps need to be more user - friendly. it may also be that the competition among participants to promote their own solutions is ultimately an obstacle to an overall efficient infrastructure. competition is