Sepa and Cards
Quote of the month
“I believe that Sepa is a commitment for change towards efficiency and increased competition from which all stakeholders will benefit. It is a high-momentum period which should be used for constructive efforts, particularly also in the domain of cards. Banks may be overwhelmed by the huge amount of micro-management that Sepa requires in order to implement the various requirements. Banks are invited to overcome the hurdle of different current practices, find a way forward on the interchange fees and shape their vision on how they want to be positioned in the cards business in the near future and on which role they would like to play in this field from a customer-bank relation point of view. The ECB welcomes all dynamism in this field.”
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank
Overall issues
The cards and payments industry is being profoundly re-shaped, as both the Single Euro Payments Area and the Payment Services Directive are entering the implementation stage. This new regulatory framework is leading to increasing competition, an expanded marketplace and a level playing field for all actors in the value chain
In anticipation of this change, banks have been focusing on achieving efficiency improvements with the replacement of ageing legacy systems and a subtle mix of in- and outsourcing.
Recently published Efma studies
“World Payments Report” by Capgemini and endorses by RBS (September 2008)
Lessons from the most recent conference
“Cards and payments – The new deal”, Paris, 9-12 September 2008 (www.efma.com/cards2008)
Best speaker:
Wouter de Ploey, Director, McKinsey & Company, Belgium
Best presentations:
- “The challenges facing acquirers”
Rob Jamieson, Head of platforms, Global merchant services and commercial cards, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, United Kingdom
- “How to reduce pricing pressure from merchants and generate new revenue streams for banks”
Aneace Haddad, Chairman and founder of Welcome Real-time, United Kingdom
- “PayPal as an eCommerce enabler”
Laurent Le Moal, Managing Director, PayPal France
Upcoming event
Efma Conference on "Cards & payments" in Paris on Wednesday 15 to Friday 17 September 2010 (www.efma.com/cards)
