Both systemic and central banks are entering a new cycle of innovation, with an emphasis on digital direct payments.
The ever-increasing expansion of direct payments, the new national legislation to lift fees, as well as the new European regulatory framework constitute “an opportunity for banks to move to a new model in the payments market, focused on customer experience and new services,” said Yannis Grammatikos, General Manager, Head of Retail Bank Products at Piraeus.
“The pressure on payments revenue is forcing us to innovate – and that’s a good thing. It’s paving the way for a new banking model, not based on ‘fees per transaction’, but on data, personalization, technology and ecosystems,” he said. This plan, he said, will be developed based on three pillars:
- enhancing the value of existing payment services with subscription-based “digital relationship” models and budgeting & alerts tools within mobile apps,
- creating new personalized products and services with the help of artificial intelligence, based on data generated by payments, and
- expanding into new ecosystems, such as telecommunications or integration with third-party platforms.
As stated by the Bank of Greece governor, Yannis Stournaras, speaking at the 9th 360 Payments Conference organized by DIAS, the adoption of new technologies has decisively modernized the Eurosystem of banks. Meanwhile, representatives of systemic banks highlighted the trends in the new environment of instant payments.
Stournaras referred to the upgrading and modernization of central bank infrastructures within the Eurosystem using technologies such as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in services like TARGET, as well as in instant payments through the TIPS service, as a success story.
The Governor of the Bank of Greece also mentioned the digital euro project, which is being developed with the participation of numerous market players, who play various roles in the payments space.
