At the end of 2017, seeking to strengthen the dialogue between payment service providers, users, regulators and the academia in the course of developing Lithuania’s payments market, the Bank of Lithuania and the Ministry of Finance established the Payments Council – an independent forum set up in light of market support, expressed during the public consultation on the National Payments Strategy.
The Payments Council was established drawing on the best practices of other countries. It consists of representatives of payment service providers, enterprises and residents, state institutions formulating and implementing payments policies as well as the academia, which share 10 votes, thus ensuring the principle of balanced representation. In 2020, the composition of the Payments Council changed and was complemented by new members. Currently, the Payments Council brings together representatives from the following institutions:
- Bank of Lithuania
- Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania
- Ministry of Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania
- Association of Lithuanian Banks
- Association of Payment and Electronic Money Institutions
- Electronic Money Association
- Fintech Lithuania group
- FINTECH HUB LT Association
- Association of Financial Services Companies “Finco”
- Alliance of Lithuanian Consumer Organisations
- Council of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
- Association of Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts
- Vytautas Magnus University
- Mykolas Romeris University
- Vilnius University
- Kaunas University of Technology
Members of the Payments Council can choose any relevant issues to be discussed during the meetings and prepare their work programmes. The Council aims to facilitate discussions on selected payment‑related issues among market participants and foster cooperation. It may form a common opinion and provide specific recommendations to market participants, state authorities and other institutions with regard to potential solutions, implementation of policy measures and development directions, formulate the common position of the Lithuanian payments market and present it to EU institutions.
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Positions of the Payments Council (2023)
- Position on measures to encourage acceptance of non-cash payments in small businesses in Lithuania (105.4 KB download icon)
Reports of the Task Forces of the Payments Council (2018-2022)
In 2018, the Payments Council analysed the following issues:
- Integration of instant payments in business and public administration processes (feasibility study (1.1 MB download icon))
- Opportunities for optimising know your customer (KYC) process (feasibility study (1.5 MB download icon))
- Analysis of opportunities for new identification means and their compliance with anti-money laundering (feasibility study (1.5 MB download icon))
In 2019-2020, the Payments Council analysed the following issues:
- Creation of measures fostering an open ecosystem for non-cash payments in education institutions (feasibility study (312.8 KB download icon))
- Development of Open Banking (feasibility study (532.5 KB download icon))
In 2021-2022, the Payments Council analysed the following topics:
- Ensuring accessibility of cash services in Lithuania (report (762.5 KB download icon))
- Access to the data in state registries
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The Payments Council’s rights and obligations, work organisation and publication procedures are set out in the Payments Council Regulations. Feel free to contact the Payments Council by email at tl.bl@abyrat-umijekom.