ECB: Innovation and digitalisation in payment services

27 February 2018

Speech by Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Second Annual Conference on “Fintech and Digital Innovation: Regulation at the European level and beyond”, in which he speaks about challenges in payments industry – those driven by digitalisation and the opportunities

Innovation and digitalisation in payment services will significantly change the payments market.

They offer opportunities for efficiency gains and improve the competitiveness of actors that embrace them.

The legislative framework established by PSD2 supports such innovation and enhances competition. It offers a legislative basis for a level playing field between new entrant TPPs (fintechs) and incumbent banks.

Regulatory requirements for TPPs and banks obviously differ but so does the spectrum of services that they provide and the level of risk that they encounter and need to protect against.

Mr. Mersch welcome if both fintech TPPs and banks were to make use of the opportunities granted by law and to compete for the most innovative and efficient provision of payment initiation services and account information services. They should build their services on common technical standards with a pan-European reach to benefit their customers and the Europen citizens in general. But they should pay careful attention to the cyber risks that accompany digitalisation and prepare their cyber strategies thoroughly.

Full speech


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