3.3 Opportunities for enhancements of card clearing

Similarly to the development of intraday credit transfers, opportunities to process transactions faster need to be assessed in the field of executing

domestic payment card transactions as well. The developments implemented in 2012 in the field of domestic credit transfers significantly accelerated transaction clearing, but did not affect any other electronic payment methods. As a result, in the case of card payments, which are the electronic payment method most frequently used by households, payees, i.e. merchants continue to receive the consideration of the transactions one or two business days following payment. Since in recent years the volume of purchases made with payment cards has grown at a fast rate – owing in part to a more intensive use of the existing acquirer infrastructure apart from the growing network of acquirers – merchants accepting cards experience an increase in the volume of transactions where they do not receive the consideration of the purchases immediately, only some days afterwards. In order that the differences between payments made with payment cards and cash are further reduced for merchants, similarly to credit transfers, it may be appropriate to accelerate the clearing of domestic card payments and the delivery of consideration to merchants. With a view to the faster clearing of payment card transactions and improved efficiency, it may be appropriate to modify the process of card clearing so that it can be implemented using the least possible amount of additional resources. Similarly to credit transfers, transactions should be cleared several times a day. In the course of the assessment, a detailed examination should be carried out on the possible role of already existing financial infrastructures, the effects of joint processing with other payment methods, and the questions arising in connection with the management of the different standards and execution rules of card schemes.