The 12th Conference on Payments and Market Infrastructures, organized by the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia in cooperation with the Nederlandsche Bank, was successfully completed. In the past three days, representatives of fourteen central banks, distinguished foreign experts and representatives from the domestic financial sector, in Ohrid discussed the latest world trends in the field of payments and the challenges for their application, in the context of the processes of the changing payments landscape in the European Union, which already begаn in our country as well. In a separate panel discussion, the participants discussed about the open banking world and the FinTech innovations in payments. A special contribution to the discussions at the Conference was made by representatives from the European Commission, the European Central Bank, central banks from the Eurosystem and the Bank for International Settlements.

"Payments market is fundamental to the creation of a more integrated, competitive and innovative economy. With digitalization and globalization on the rise and the potential offered by the new technology, payments industry has enhanced its significance. The incumbents and the new market players are increasingly using the opportunities for producing innovative payment solutions.” - said among other things the Vice Governor of the National Bank, Emilija Nacevska in her address within the ending of the Conference Programme.

She also presented the concluding observations of the Conference, referring to the large number of expert views on a number of key issues related to changes and challenges, which were presented these days. For some of these issues, some of the participants today exchanged opinions and discussed in separate working groups.

With PSD2 and other related EU legislation, Nacevska pointed out, the retail payments market in Europe has the building blocks it needs to provide innovative pan-European payment services. Our country is intensively preparing to accept the changes and to respond to the challenges in the payment area, for which this Conference edition in Ohrid is also an indicator.

“In this regard, we find this event to be a facilitator for the further dialogue with domestic payment service providers and payment systems operators, with a view to foster competition and innovations as well as increase consumer protection in the field of payments.” - said Nacevska, reminding that the new Draft-Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems, which transposes the most important parts of the European legislation in this area, has been recently submitted to the stakeholders. She also pointed out that except through the regulatory role for the changing payments landscape, the National Bank, with an active involvement in this dialogue, will also be a catalyst for ensuring safe and efficient evolution of payments market. 

Presenting the conclusions of the Conference, the Vice Governor also referred to the challenges for central banks to ensure not only efficiency, but also safety in the implementation of the innovations in the field of payments, as well as appropriate education of the population for the new payment services, for which these days in Ohrid several expert views were exchanged, thus emphasizing that our central bank already takes steps for that purpose.

In the ending of the event, the participants from the country unanimously shared the impression that this conference provides better insight and monitoring of the latest trends in the field of payments at the expert level and that its organization brings great benefits to the payment industry in our economy.

International experts emphasized that the country is on the right track in the adoption of the European legislation on payment services.

The National Bank continues to actively monitor the innovations and the trends in this area and to work on encouraging the activities for improving payment services in our country.