04 March 2024

Commissioner McGuinness at Annual Payments Conference 2024 hosted by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI)

..we have other payment methods that are exploding – both in terms of the type of payments but also the volume of transactions. And digitalisation isn't new, but Covid definitely accelerated the growth in digital payments.

 find this room the more interesting because of the impact of small things we don't think about as citizens, like payments.

We just make them, and we never think there's a whole ecosystem, legislation, individuals behind all of that.

So I'm very happy to recall this morning the rapid pace of change which Cathy alluded to.

And indeed how the Commission has responded and encouraged innovation in this area.

So there's been a lot of change, even in my short three and a half years in this role.

We used to use our cards, chip and pin.

Cash though I would say remains the most frequent way of paying.

But we have other payment methods that are exploding – both in terms of the type of payments but also the volume of transactions.

And digitalisation isn't new, but Covid definitely accelerated the growth in digital payments.

More and more card payments are contactless.

We have mobile apps, eWallets on our smartphones, so you don't even need a physical card anymore.

And I was very glad of those wallets when I discovered I left my cards at home in Ireland when I was marooned in Brussels during Covid, so these things matter.

We also have QR codes, which allow for payments between friends and indeed family.

And I think also behind this the business landscape has changed significantly.

We have fintechs offering new ways of paying.

Big tech companies are becoming more active in this area too.

And incumbents are innovating.

So there's lots of competition, lots of choice and innovation for consumers.

But it's not all problem-free.

We identified some problems in this payments market, including fragmentation along national lines.

And you know last year, we marked 30 years of the European single market, which is something to celebrate, but we don't quite have it when it comes to capital or banking and finance.

But that's something that we need to work towards.

If you look at the way we have more payment methods, but they tend to be quite Member State-focused, and don't work in other Member States.

And therefore it can be difficult for a payment provider to scale up from one Member State to another.

Another issue is that non-bank payment providers didn't have direct access to payment systems, which means they couldn't compete fairly with banks.

If we look at instant payment technology, it's been around since 2017, but instant payments themselves are not widespread.

And that's something we are all acutely aware of.

But in addition to all of that is the topic of fraud.

And I'm sure many in this room deal specifically with what is a growing problem of fraud.

Payment card fraud was joined by new types of fraud arising with digitalisation.

And we know that fraudsters are very tech-savvy, and they're using AI to target consumers....

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