EFFECT ON CURRENT ENVIRONMENT
In theory a customer should be able to make and receive all Euro payments from one bank account, as easily and for the same price as the customer makes national payments now.
For the corporate that should mean dispensing with all ‘national’ bank accounts and just holding all necessary accounts in one place, in a harmonised domestic market with no concept of ‘national’ or ‘cross-border’ payments.
Instead of dealing with a series of national or regional banks, there would be the prospect of dealing with a series of pan-European service providers, only some of which may be banks.
The marketplace should transform from one dominated by vertically integrated suppliers who dominate and deliver a complete value chain – usually a set of national payment schemes.
Instead there should be horizontally integrated suppliers who operate on a pan-European basis:
- Suppliers of payment services
- Suppliers of clearing and settlement services
- Suppliers of communication services
