Innovations in Retail Payments as a Challenge for Central Banks

The purpose of this article is to assess the importance of innovations in retail payments for central banks as the institutions responsible for stability and efficiency of national payment systems. The analysis is based on the information contained in the literature, reports of the Bank for International Settlements and the results of a survey conducted by the author in 2013 among central banks of 11 countries. The article defines what constitutes innovations in payments, as well as refers to them as the object of interest of central banks. This is followed by a short description of forms of central banks’ interference in the organization and regulation of retail payment processes. It attempts to answer the question whether and why innovations in payments pose a challenge for central banks, and how they may affect the implementation of their tasks.