Speaking today at a conference in Frankfurt, Cipollone explained that the retail payments ecosystem is currently facing three main challenges. Firstly, retail payments remain fragmented and there is no euro-wide solution, leaving citizens dependent on a limited number of options. Secondly, competition is limited because it is difficult for local payment service providers to scale up to a European level and citizens are over-reliant on non-European players. “An excessive reliance on non-European providers makes our financial and payment system more vulnerable to external shocks,” said Cipollone, who believes that European alternatives would increase the EU’s capacity to set its own standards. “Europeans should have more control over an asset as crucial for our economy and society as payments,” he continued. He explained that the ECB is working towards a system where retail payments are faster, cheaper, easier and more resilient, thanks to a diversity of pan-European payment instruments that build on existing infrastructures. As he explained, the ECB is working towards a system where retail payments are faster, cheaper, easier and more resilient, thanks to a variety of pan-European payment instruments that build on existing infrastructures. More specifically, the ECB is focusing on the digital euro, which is in the investigation phase, and the retail payments strategy, with the aim of implementing pan-European private payment solutions at the point of interaction. In this context, Cipollone called for resisting the temptation to stick to the status quo and to leverage the combined knowledge, experience and efforts of public authorities and private stakeholders to create a single euro retail payments area, whose medium- to long-term benefits “would largely outweigh the costs of the initial investment”. “Today we need to take the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) to the next level, at the point of interaction, through the digital euro and pan-European private payment solutions,” he said. Read also: BCE diz que não se pode comprometer com futuras descidas das taxas (Portuguese version)