Speaking on Wednesday 24 April at the opening of the ECB conference on retail payments, Piero Cipollone, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), called for the further integration of European payments and the reduction of excessive European dependency on payments in order to support competition and innovation.
Piero Cipollone praised the integration of the euro retail payments market over the last 15 years. However, he pointed out that the current ecosystem faced three major challenges: - fragmentation, since most European retail payment solutions are, in his view, focused on national markets and cover only certain use cases; - lack of competition at the point of interaction; - dependence on non-European payment service providers.
Mr Cipollone said that the ECB’s response included the digital euro project, combined with its retail payment strategy, which is “centred on fostering the development of privately operated, European-governed, pan-European payment solutions at the point of interaction”. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)