L'elettronificazione dei pagamenti al dettaglio e lo sviluppo della moneta elettronica - Tesi di Dottorato di Ricerca in Economia Aziendale (ciclo XVII)

[Machine translation] The application of modern electronic technologies to the payment system has produced a variety of payment instruments with somewhat diversified technical and operational characteristics, but united by the use of an electronic device that acts as a “reservoir” of purchasing power that can be spent under predefined conditions and methods. , In reality, the simple use of electronic support is not in itself sufficient to identify the instruments that fully fall into the category of electronic money, unless it accepts a very broad and generic definition of the same, however not shared by the legislator and the supervisory authorities of the European Union who have intervened several times to regulate the innovation in question., The concern to guarantee the security of the payment system and to safeguard the effectiveness of monetary policy has in fact given rise, at the Community level, to an intense effort to regulate electronic money and the institutions that issue it, culminating in the issuance of Directive 2000/46/EC “concerning the initiation, exercise and prudential supervision of the activities of electronic money institutions”. This Directive, in addition to still being the main Community legislative reference on the subject, offers scholars and operators important points of reference to clarify the nature and characteristics of the different forms of electronic money., The supply of electronic money solutions is currently looking like a “leopard spot”: many technological solutions and projects that are often overlapping, united by little feedback on the demand side. A significant cause of this situation is represented by cultural obstacles, connected with the reluctance to abandon established habits and with fears related to the reliability of electronic money instruments., In light of these introductory considerations, this paper analyzes electronic money with particular regard to the following aspects:, • technical and operating characteristics;, • prudential supervision and monetary policy implications;, • examples of operating schemes in Italy;, • level of diffusion in the main European countries compared to that of the United States;, • development prospects., Finally, the study aims to identify the impact of technological and competitive evolution on the function and role of traditional operators, with particular reference to banks.