The European Central Bank and the Banque de France are hosting a conference entitled “Retail Payments at a Crossroads: Economics, Strategies, and Future Policies” on October 21-22, 2013. Original, theoretical and empirical papers covering at least one of the following related themes are invited:

Recent and future developments in retail payments and retail payment economics; impact of the economic crisis on retail banking and retail payments; payment habits and the use of different payment instruments; integration of retail payment markets; consolidation, economies of scale and efficiency in the retail payments industry; cost, pricing and network externalities relating to retail payments; competition versus cooperation of market participants in payment services and other network industries; governance and (self-) regulation in the field of retail payments; financial inclusion of under- and unbanked people; payment innovations, including virtual currencies, e-identity and internet/mobile payments; security (including fraud, counterfeiting, and cyber-attacks), trust, and data protection in retail payments; and lessons learnt from other two-sided markets and network industries and their applicability to retail payments.

Deadline: May 15, 2013. Papers should be sent by e-mail in pdf format to payments-conference-2013[@]ecb.europa.eu and payments-conference-2013[@]banque-france.fr. Include your name and an abstract with your submission. Travel and accommodation costs can be reimbursed for one academic speaker per accepted paper.