CASH MANAGEMENT MARKET STRUCTURE
On the other hand we have a series of completely different drivers that could entrench the market structure even more on ‘national’ grounds:
- The adaptation of the SEPA Schemes to be more like the legacy schemes they are replacing, in order to ease migration
- The adaptation would be achieved by each country specifying extra data to be used on top of the core schemes – that extra data is known as ‘AOS’ or ‘Additional Optional Services’
- The different transposition of PSD making the prevailing laws around payments less harmonised than they were before (PSD was aimed at creating harmonisation)
- Banks being compelled by governments, shareholders or regulators to concentrate on ‘home markets’, being national markets, as the price of government support in the credit crisis or as the result of changed business focus
This last driver is a major one – few if any banks operate in depth and on a pan-European basis. Maybe their reduced physical reach in terms of bricks-and-mortar will drive them to push remote payment services out to their clients harder and quicker.
But the customers have their operating structure and related needs – and may not be open to that. Instead they may be forced to manage as many or more bank relationships than they have now, or be open to a multibank proposition like a banking club – like IBOS.
