Paper series: European payments scenario – becoming a level playing field

Introduction

The evolution path the Banking industry has witnessed in the last few years with Consolidations, Expansions, Electronic Banking in Retail, Developments in Risk management, the evolution of the Euro single currency and subsequently the innovations in payments has made the European banking scene more active than ever.

At different points in time the Banks have faced challenges in achieving the above, powered by organizational growth aspirations in serving the customer base and driven by regulatory changes affecting the banking industry.

The most recent regulatory changes are the efforts of creating a level playing field in payment instruments in Europe by creating a faster, transparent, standard and cost effective payment infrastructure. OFT (Office of fair trading) in UK and SEPA in European union. This change in direction offers immense challenges for Banks in terms of scaling its IT capabilities and increased competition in the market... read on


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