Benoît Coeuré, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, today held a speech at a joint conference by the European Central Bank and the Banque de France, “Retail Payments at a Crossroads: Economics, Strategies and Future Policies”. Although this is a conference that focuses primarily on scientific research in the area of payments, his speech provides some insight into the policy issues that are now top-of-mind for the ECB.
Mr Cœuré outlined amongst others that:
- the SEPA migration deadlines, as prescribed by law, must be fully adhered to,
- the ECB will establish and chair the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB), with the ambition for the ERPB to achieve a wider membership, strengthened mandate and a more output-driven approach,
- new innovative services should be panEuropean and the ECB finds it necessary that clear conditions are established under which payment initiation services offered by third-party service providers can use access to existing online banking systems.
In particular the last remark on the conditions under which third party system providers get access to the accounts of customers at their own banks, may be viewed as an indication that the ECB will certainly desire more clarity on this issue during the current revision of the Payment Services Directive.