European Payments Council (EPC) director general Goosse is urging banks throughout the to move quickly to adopt the EPC real-time payment scheme, Reuters reported on Wednesday. According to Goosse, Europe’s financial sector needs to innovate to compete with new financial technology payment solutions from companies like Facebook.
So far, only about 60 percent of EU banks and payment service firms have adopted the EPC standard, but Goosse suggested that every bank in the could be part of that system by 2020. As Reuters reports, full participation is important:
Without full coverage, some bank customers could experience transaction failures if transfers involve banks outside the system, which would reduce trust in the new service, another EPC official said.