E-Payments Evolution

Some observations from 2006 on innovation in retail payments in Europe are summarized in this article. The focus is on selected developments in the area of E-Payments. In principle, E-Payments may be defined as all payments that are initiated, processed and received electronically. One can distinguish between E-Commerce retail payments (business-to-consumer or B2C payments) and E-Payments amongst consumers (Private-to-Private or P2P payments), as well as electronic adoptions of “traditional” banking services (electronic transactions between a bank and its customers, e.g. for initiating credit transfers or authorising direct debits). However, there are overlaps between these categories. For instance, E-Banking services can also serve payment purposes between consumers and businesses or between private persons