11th meeting of the National Payments Council

The 11th meeting of the National Payments Council (NPC) was held at the Bank of Slovenia on 26 September 2018. The focus of the discussion was the draft of the NPC’s action plan for 2019 and 2020, which will set out the priorities of the NPC and its members and will provide the basis for the development of the payments market in accordance with the NPC vision for the development of the payments market in Slovenia (the NPC vision).  

The differing needs and interests of the stakeholders could lead to fragmentation in the development of the payments market, which would fail to bring the stakeholders (payment service providers and users alike) all of the potential benefits. Aligning the views of the stakeholders represented on the NPC with regard to the NPC’s future work ensures greater involvement and commitment on the part of the stakeholders, thereby encouraging the guided development of a connected, competitive, effective, transparent, secure, innovative and consumer-friendly market in payment services in Slovenia. The action plan will also provide the basis for determining the success of the NPC’s work.

Members of the NPC will be briefed on the activities of banks and savings banks with regard to the establishment of a single interface for secure exchange of information on user accounts between payment service providers and service providers that are allowed to access user accounts, with the consent of the user and the authorisation of the competent authority, for the purposes of executing transactions. By putting in place an interface for communications between various service providers, the banking sector will meet the requirements of the Payment Services, Electronic Money Issuance Services and Payment Systems Act.

 Those attending the meeting were also briefed on progress in the area of the establishment of infrastructure for processing instant payments. Given that they provide for the transfer of funds from the payer’s account to the payee’s account in (almost) real time, instant payments have great potential for use in P2P payments and B2B payments, and also at points of sale in the segment of person-to-merchant payments (P2M).

More information on the NPC and on the subjects discussed at meetings is available here.