George Korfiatis, Deputy Director of the Bank of Greece, spoke at the 8th Payments Conference on digital payments and mentioned the Bank of Greece's horizontal cooperation with the Hellenic Revenue Service as well as the Central Bank's decision to create and present a custom solution, Request-to-Pay.

"The possibility of direct payment has already been implemented for all the services of the AADE with the aim of being able to execute all tax obligations by updating the citizen's card at the AADE at the same time as the payment. The migration of established debts to the use of an RF code, which is combined with a QR code, is now complete. Now the Bank of Greece aims for request-to-pay payments to offer options for immediate or subsequent payment, certainty of execution of part or all of the overdue debts, and maximum security," said the deputy director of the BoG. 

Speaking at the conference, Corfiatis argued that the issue of instant payments is a key priority for the BoG, and its goal is the full adoption of instant payments by the Greek market. "The challenge is to manage to "transform" direct payments from a "luxury" service to a new normal,"  he said.

"We have to agree that direct payments are not a mere regulatory obligation. For its part, BoG will soon implement the use of a QR code in its transactions," he said, stressing that "as a community, there should be cooperation so that direct payments can be established as a new normal."

The deputy director of the BoG also referred to the cost of direct payments, stressing that direct payments should be an affordable solution. "While the cost of using the TIPS for PSPs is 1 thousandth of a euro per transaction, the service is currently offered to consumers as premium with relatively high pricing," he explained, "but this is changing because the new regulation on direct payments obliges PSPs to offer it under attractive pricing.".