In light of competition from Facebook and other tech firms and banking firms, the European Union could potentially have a real-time payments system in place by 2020, according to a report by Reuters.
Instant payments have actually been available in the EU since 2017, but only around 50 percent of banks have used them, and then mostly for domestic payments. Now that Facebook has announced its planned cryptocurrency, Libra, and the threat of migration is much more real, banks are responding.
“The clock is ticking,” said Etienne Goosse, director general of the European Payments Council (EPC). Goosse said that it doesn’t matter how successful Libra is, banks need to and act fast.
One of the advantages of tech firms, he said, is that they are global companies, as opposed to just fragmented financial entities in one region.