The Cards Working Group of the European Payments Council has issued asummary of its work. Its goal was to formulate a long term vision on the positioning of cards and electronic means of payment in the context of SEPA, the Single European Payment Are(n)a. Thus they split up in two groups, one discussing card fraud, the other discussing business models.
The recommendations focus on practical issues such as deeper standardisation and combatting fraud. But more generally they intend to improve the governance structure between banks and card organisations so as to allow more transparent decisions on which part of the card business a bank wants to be in. To this end, interchange agreements are a must, so this is also noted in the document.
Of course the document outlines the desire to work closely together with regulators, but it also points out some issues where no further regulatory steps should be taken. What struck me particularly:
digital certification services in the payment sector (a deeper understanding of the issues is necessary before progressing in this field),
I couldn't agree more.
