10th meeting of the National Payments Council

The 10th meeting of the National Payments Council (NPC) was held on 5 April 2018, at which the annual report on the work of the National Payments Council in 2017 was discussed and approved. The annual report highlights some of the major subjects discussed by the NPC (instant payments and fintech), and the NPC’s key activities in 2017, including the activities of its working groups. Participation in the working groups allowed the stakeholders represented on the NPC to discuss and resolve issues relating to specifics and expertise, and also issues of an operational nature that concern various stakeholders in the payments market.

At the meeting members of the NPC also agreed on the approach to realising the NPC’s vision for the development of the payments market in Slovenia (as described in the vision document), which defines key areas of future action aimed at developing a connected, competitive, efficient, transparent, secure and innovative payments market in Slovenia. The activities in connection with the defined approach to realising the NPC’s vision and the preparations of specific plans of work on the basis of the vision document will be taken on by a dedicated working group.  The NPC is aware of the importance of effective means of payment to the economy and to society as a whole. On this theme members also discussed the options for encouraging cashless payment in Slovenia and the introduction of online debit card payment. In this connection the members of the NPC agreed that the dialogue and cooperation between payment service providers and users and other stakeholders in the payments market offered by the NPC platform are the key to encouraging the use of effective means of payment. The NPC will continue to monitor this subject closely, and will support the development and establishment of effective means of payment, partly with the aim of improving the user experience and maintaining users’ confidence in the functioning of the payments market.

Those attending the meeting were also briefed on progress in the area of the establishment of infrastructure for instant payments. Instant payments will be of interest to all Slovenian users, as their speed of approval (a maximum of ten seconds) in the accounts of payees mean that they have great potential for use in P2P payments and B2B payments, and also at points of sale in the segment of person-to-business payments (P2B). The infrastructure for the clearing and settlement of instant payments will begin to function (provisionally) in the autumn of 2018. As of then various providers will have the opportunity to offer instant payments solutions to users. 

Members of the NPC were also informed of the completion of the migration to the new UPO payment order with a QR code, the migration having been completed on 3 April 2018. There was also a presentation of the activities carried out to date in connection with the establishment of a single interface for secure communication between payment service providers that manage payment accounts and providers of the payment ordering service and the service of providing information about accounts in Slovenia. 

More information on the NPC and on the subjects discussed at meetings is available on the Bank of Slovenia website.