On 4–5 June 2015, the Bank of Finland is hosting jointly with the European Central Bank an international conference “Getting the balance right: innovation, trust and regulation in retail payments”. The conference will explore development trends and innovations within retail payments as well as consumers' payment habits and assess the impacts of regulations.
In the wake of digitalisation and globalisation, the borders between countries and industries are also fading away, and the number of operators is increasing. “Paying is also undergoing a significant transformation due to digitalisation. Digitalisation creates major opportunities to improve the efficiency and speed of payment. At the same time, it may pose new threats to the reliability and security, which we need to prepare for”, noted Erkki Liikanen, Governor of the Bank of Finland, who opened the conference together with Yves Mersch, Executive Board Member of the European Central Bank.
Mr Mersch added that “the structural changes in the retail payments industry arising from digitalisation are just beginning to take effect. Payment service providers – be they market incumbents or new players – and regulators need to respond to the challenges that these structural changes bring”.
In the new environment, customers should be able to use payment services without undue inconvenience and costs. “The international compatibility of payment services is paramount, and significant progress has been made in Europe with SEPA in this respect. Discussion and exchange of ideas between different parties are important, since it is in our common interest to develop paying in ways that are efficient and useful to the society as a whole”, Governor Liikanen emphasised.
Looking ahead, Mr. Mersch indicated that “Instant payments are the ‘hot’ topic in the retail payments industry. Rather than starting to develop national schemes, we should go straight to a pan-European solution for instant payments. We should take advantage of the harmonisation and integration already achieved with SEPA and use SEPA as a blueprint for instant payment solutions.”
The conference speakers also include Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Jonathan Faull, Director-General at the European Commission. The academic keynote speaker is Professor Charles M. Kahn from the University of Illinois. The programme and presentations of the conference are available on the ECB website.
For further information, please contact: Kari Kemppainen, Advisor (kari.kemppainen@bof.fi, tel. +358 10 831 2249).