The structure of the European payments market is changing. The European Commission has proposed a new legal framework for payments. As a result, the Payment Services Directive is intended to provide a harmonised legal environment. The directive will be implemented in Sweden in 2009. It will affect BGC when it comes to our Direct Debit service (Autogiro), for instance.
The vision of creating an internal market for payments is transforming into reality by SEPA, the Single European Payments Area, which is said to be “the largest payments initiative ever undertaken within Europe”. At BGC we are currently reviewing our products to see in what way the can use the new standards in our products.