“I am deeply convinced that we need such a European system. And I am confident that in the end all relevant financial institutions from Germany will participate,” said Bundesbank board member Burkhard Balz to the Handelsblatt. “Once EPI is in use, we will see that other banks and other companies will join – including from EU countries that currently do not want to participate,” said Balz. EPI is an open system in which other shareholders can join.
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is currently planning the development of a so-called wallet that consumers might use to use various payment options. These include mobile-to-mobile payments, payments when shopping online and at the checkout. In the first attempt, the banks involved had also considered a European payment card.
The Deutsche Bank and the savings banks have promised their investments. The German Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken and Commerzbank – like some other European financial institutions – withdrew from EPI because they did not agree with the original orientation. The cooperative banks are now on board with the slimmed-down version, writes the Handelsblatt. Commerzbank is also considering participating in the scaled-down version of the project.
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