Study on Electronic Payment Systems on behalf of the European Parliament

  • Project team:

    Rader, Michael (Project leader); Knud Böhle; Ulrich Riehm

  • Funding:

    European Parliament

  • Start date:

    1998

  • End date:

    1999

  • Project partners:

    JRC-IPTS, Sevilla; NUTEK, Technology Policy Studies, Stockholm; TNO Strategy, Technology and Policy, Delft; Center for Tele-Information, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby; Consult Hyperion; University of Girona, E.I. Department; Global Electronic Finance Management, S.A., Brussels; Piero Bucci, Rom

  • Research group:

    Innovation processes and impacts of technology

Project description

The project electonic payment systems was performed jointly by the European Science and Technology Observatory (ESTO) and the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (IPTS) for the European Parliament. The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies received the mandate to carry out a study on the political aspects of new electronic payment systems. In this, the IPTS was supported by a network of European research establishments united in the European Science and Technology Observatory (ESTO). ITAS was responsible for the coordination of ESTO activities in this project. The final report contains a series of country-specific analyses on existing payment systems and ongoing or planned initiatives, in particular for electronic money, covering ten European countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The country analyses contain information on payment cultures, national frameworks for banking and financial services, payment cards, electronic purses, Internet payment systems and electronic commerce in each of the ten countries. The report reveals vast national differences and peculiarities which will have great impact on the spread of electronic payment systems and electronic commerce in the individual countries. It also shows that use of electronic money is only at the experimental stage and that traditional national "access products" are finding use on the Internet for domestic transactions. While Internet commerce at the national level is growing impressively, trans-border commerce is only just starting. Here, there will be a demand for a uniform and unambiguous framework, especially with respect to legal aspects. In addition an infrastructure is required enabling interoperability of a broad range of existing and emerging payment methods.

Publications


1999
Reports/Preprints
Böhle, K.; Rader, M.; Riehm, U.
Electronic Payment Systems in European Countries Country Synthesis Report
1999. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) 

Contact

Dr. Michael Rader
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)
P.O. Box 3640
76021 Karlsruhe
Germany

Tel.: +49 721 608-22501 (ITAS secretariat)
E-mail