An article relating to this blog post on Finextra:
The e-money mandate
Phoebus Athanassiou and Natalia Mas-Guix of the European Central Bank explore current trends, regulatory issues and future prospects for electronic money institutions.
See article
If you really want to boost the EU's economic fortunes, improve its competitiveness and facilitate its progressive adaptation to the digital age then you need less regulation, not more. And the best regulation is often no regulation at all. Innovation needs
space to breathe and to flourish, and to do that it should be as unfettered as possible. This is especially true in the development of new products and processes.
Admittedly there are critical issues that are already regulated, and for good reason too. These are issues such as "who is a bank" (or financial institution) and what banks can and cannot do. But these regulations, if constructed correctly should be sufficient
to keep legitimate players on a "reasonably" straight and narrow path. They should also be able to keep the "chancers" away. You also need to have legal certainty and sound procedures for resolving errors and such forth.
But, aside from that, let the innovators innovate - let them have free reign. This is really how we have got this far with our internet, our mobiles, our motorcars, our airliners and all the other "must haves" of Modern 2008 Man (and Women too, of course).