29 April 2019

Newly established Payment Council holds inaugural meeting

Central Bank of Iceland

The Central Bank of Iceland’s newly established Payment Council held its first meeting on Tuesday 23 April 2019. The Payment Council is a consultative forum for governmental authorities, market participants, and other stakeholders concerning issues relating to payment intermediation and financial market infrastructure. The Council’s aim is to ensure that policy formulation in the fields of payment intermediation and financial market infrastructure in Iceland is based on appropriate foundations, with security, efficiency, and efficacy as guiding principles. The Bank prepares the Council’s meetings, and the Governor presides over the meetings. All materials relating to the Payment Council will be published on the Bank’s website soon after each meeting.

Representatives of the following bodies attended the inaugural meeting: Financial Supervisory Authority, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Consumer Agency, the Consumers' Union of Iceland, the Icelandic Banks' Data Centre hf., the Icelandic Financial Services Association, the Federation of Icelandic Industries, the Federation of Trade and Services, and the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce. Several Bank employees also attended.

At the meeting, the objectives and structure of the work ahead were reviewed, and there were discussions of the advances taking place in payment intermediation. Representatives from the Central Bank reviewed the status of Icelandic retail payment intermediation and introduced two special reports published last autumn: Retail payment intermediation from the standpoint of contingency and financial stability and Rafkróna? (i.e. Central Bank Digital Currency). The Council’s next meeting will be held in about six months.

The minutes of the meeting and other documentation will be posted soon to a separate section of the Central Bank of Iceland website.

Further information can be obtained from Már Guðmundsson, Governor of the Central Bank, and Guðmundur Kr. Tómasson, Director of Financial Infrastructure, at tel: +354 569-9600.

Press release no. 8/2019
29 April 2019


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