On 21st March 2013, EPIF (European Payment Institutions Federation) starred a panel on Payment Institutions at the EPCA (European Payments Consulting Association) Payment Summit, which is a key conference for the European payments industry. This event provides plenty of opportunities to catch up on the latest ideas from payment experts and leaders, to exchange ideas, to attend innovative and educational presentations, and to brainstorm on what the future will look like.
In this edition, held in Brussels in the beautiful Egmont Palace, both technical and economic experts assembled to tackle the latest and future trends. Mostly due to EPIF’s panel, the event also shed light on the regulatory evolution of the European payments industry, a topic that generated great attention and discussion. Ignacio González-Páramo (Payvision) took part in this panel (together with Stephan Neuberger – Concardis – and Merik Toms – Western Union-) and highlighted that, in his opinion, regulation is the main game changer, since it is what determines mostly which innovations can be implemented. Just after the panel discussion, The Paypers interviewed Ignacio to get a further insight on the opinions he dropped during the panel and to ask him to share his thoughts on wider matters, such as the importance of Payment Institutions in the current landscape, expectations for 2013, challenges for European Payment Services Providers, etc.