Hundred years ago, in January 1918, our Dutch retail payments landscape changed considerably. After a 14 year political discussion, the postal cheque and giro services started operations and made it possible for consumers and SMEs to pay in an easy and inexpensive way.

The development of Dutch retail payments since then, took place with quite some trial and error. The concept of ‘giro’ became established, banks entered the market and competition and innovation went hand in hand. At the same time, there were repeated episodes of both cooperation and fierce competition. These episodes shaped the Dutch retail payment landscape into what it is today: a wide range of players and payment methods: cards, mobile phones, QR-code’s, NFC and biometric payments.

Guest lecture to commemorate this century of retail payments
Simon Lelieveldt commemorated this century of retail payments development on January 18th, 2018, in a public lecture at the Hague Campus of the Leidsche Universiteit. He sharedsome of the contents of his upcoming publication on the development of Dutch retail payments from 1900 onwards. He focused in particular on the technological, economic and regulatory interactions that shaped the Dutch market.

This lecture was held at the Hague Campus of the Leidsche University (Schouwburgstraat 2) and preceded the ESB-conference on innovation and retail payments.

ESB-event: a conversation with regulators on innovation in payment services
During the ESB-conference, Job Swank Executive Director of the Dutch central bank (DNB), Cateautje Hijmans van den Bergh, board member of the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and Ralf Jacob head of the payment services unit of DG FISMA of the European Commission, will provide introductions to the topic of regulation and innovation in payment services. The introductions will be followed by a plenary discussion with the speakers under moderation by Jeroen Kremers.

We should note that this is also a very timely and historic conference, as it is in exactly this same week that the second payment services directive enters into force in European Member States. The conference started at 15.30 at the same location and you can check the impressions and video at the site of the ESB.

Interested to know about the forthcoming publication?
If you are interested to be informed when the publication on 100 years of Dutch retail payments by Simon Lelieveldt will be published, feel free to sign up on this specific list.