The banking sector, including the payments industry has experienced in recent years the same attention to market liberalization and strengthening competition as policy makers have given to other sectors, such as telecommunications, energy and transportation. At the European level, such attention has often come in the form of a “one-two punch” of legislation intended to bring together fragmented national markets, with selected competition enforcement action. These regulatory instruments have indeed been applied to the payment industry, with action and implementation at both the national and European level.

Given the intensity and scope of recent regulatory initiatives and public policy efforts toward examining payment cards, it could be useful to review the main results and implications of these activities. Below is a summary of recent European-level regulatory and policy developments concerning payment services in Europe.