The present paper explores issues surrounding multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) in payment card markets from various angles. The Eurosystem’s public stance on interchange fees is neutral. However, the Eurosystem takes a keen interest in facilitating a constructive dialogue among the...

The European Central Bank (ECB) carried out a study of the social and private costs of different payment instruments with the participation of 13 national central banks in the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It shows that the costs to society of providing retail payment services are...

Financial integration in some segments of the financial markets started to deteriorate during the recent period of economic turmoil in Europe. This paper examines whether this phenomenon also holds true for the European retail payments market. In comparison with other segments of the financial...

This paper documents the recent performance of European electronic purses. It presents data on 16 such schemes, and compares their penetration and usage rates. These rates are shown to differ substantially. A number of schemes are doing increasingly well and in all probability are here to stay....

Virtual currencies are a contemporary form of private money. Thanks to their technological properties, their global transaction networks are relatively safe, transparent, and fast. This gives them good prospects for further development. However, they remain unlikely to challenge the dominant...

Norges Bank has been running a central bank digital currency project since 2016. The project is now in its fourth phase, and as part of this phase an overview will be provided of required legislative amendments linked to the introduction of CBDC. For an overview of Norges Bank's CBDC project,...

Norges Bank has been running a central bank digital currency project since 2016. The project is now in its fourth phase, and as part of this phase an overview will be provided of required legislative amendments linked to the introduction of CBDC. For an overview of Norges Bank's CBDC project,...

The day after the news of Libra came out, it is said that Ma Huateng said on WeChat: "Libra has no technical problems, the main problem is about regulatory issues." I think this sentence is very simple, but it reflects many of his experiences, and I think it is correct. Many people's analysis of...

According to Senior Scholar Jan Kregel and Paolo Savona, attempting to maintain the status quo in the face of the introduction of some recent technological innovations-chiefly cryptocurrencies and associated instruments based on distributed ledger technology, the deployment of artificial...