ECB determined to push forward its payment system - Mersch

The European Central Bank is "determined" to push forward an instant payment system it launched last year through regulatory moves if the service failed to spread through collaboration with the industry, ECB board member Yves Mersch said on Tuesday. "We will do it either through our collaborative, cooperative efforts together with the industry or we will do it through our regulatory capacity," Mersch told a fintech conference in Brussels.

The ECB's TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system will let people and companies in Europe transfer euros to each other within seconds and regardless of the opening hours of their local bank. This is seen as a direct challenge to U.S. firms like PayPal, Google, Facebook and Amazon, and China's Alibaba and Tencent which currently dominate such services in Europe. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio)