The EU Law of Payments

Phoebus L. Athanassiou (Author)

ISBN: 9781035348213

Published: September 2026

Format: Hardcover

Language: English

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited

Description

This book provides an authoritative account of the legal and regulatory framework governing money, payments and their supporting infrastructures in the EU. It examines the evolving regulation of payment systems and service providers, including the process of money creation and the fundamental legal relationships involved. Analysing the landscape of cross-border payments, it addresses how to reduce friction and enhance efficiency across the EU payments ecosystem.

Key Features

• Outlines the main pieces of EU legislation governing the operation of payment systems, the provision of payment services, and the activities of intermediaries in those fields
• Explores the current state of play and EU regulation of instant payments
• Examines the legal parameters and effects of the eventual introduction of central bank digital currencies, both retail and wholesale, for the processing and settlement of payments
• Evaluates how novel payment instruments, including stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and virtual currencies, are impacting the EU's payment ecosystem
• Provides insight into the future of payments and the challenges facing issuers and users of money

Coverage

The book covers: the conceptual and legal foundations of money; established payment methods and instruments under EU retail payments regulation; EU regulation and oversight of payment systems; regulation of retail payment services; retail instant payments and related EU initiatives; virtual currencies, stablecoins, and tokenised deposits; central bank digital currencies for retail and wholesale use; and the specificities, shortcomings, and evolution of cross-border payments.

About the Author

Dr. Phoebus L. Athanassiou is Senior Lead Legal Counsel with the Directorate General Legal Services of the European Central Bank (ECB), where his work has covered the legal aspects of single monetary policy implementation, the Eurosystem collateral framework, financial crisis-related matters and, more recently, payments and securities settlement. He specialises in EU, Greek and Cypriot financial law and has published extensively on financial services, capital markets, and securities regulation. He holds law degrees from Queen Mary College and King's College London, including a doctorate in law, and previously practised with a leading Athens law firm. His earlier books include studies of the European sovereign debt crisis and of digital innovation in financial services.

Table of Contents

1. Money: conceptual and legal considerations
2. Established means of payment, payment methods, and instruments: use in retail payments and EU regulation
3. Payment systems: EU regulation and oversight
4. Retail payment services and their regulation under EU law
5. Retail instant payments, EU regulation, and initiatives
6. Innovation in electronic payments: virtual currencies, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits
7. Innovation in electronic payments II: Central Bank Digital Currencies for retail and wholesale use
8. Cross-border payments: specificities, shortcomings, and evolution

Why buy this book?

As the EU moves closer to a digital euro and grapples with the regulatory treatment of stablecoins and tokenised deposits, this book gives practitioners and institutions a single authoritative reference connecting the traditional legal architecture of EU payments with these emerging frameworks — written from the vantage point of a senior ECB legal counsel who has worked directly on payments and securities settlement policy.

Keywords

EU payments law, payment systems regulation, digital euro, central bank digital currency, stablecoins, tokenised deposits, virtual currencies, cross-border payments, EU banking law, financial regulation

Target Audience

Financial legal practitioners, central bank staff, EU policymakers and regulators, scholars and students in finance and banking law

Genre

Payments Law, Financial Regulation, EU Banking Law

Q&A

Q: What obligations does EU law impose on payment service providers?
A: EU law sets out a detailed regulatory framework for payment service providers covering authorisation, conduct, and oversight of payment systems, drawing on the main EU legislative instruments governing payment services and intermediary activity.

Q: How does the EU regulate central bank digital currencies?
A: The book examines the legal parameters and effects of a potential EU central bank digital currency, both retail and wholesale, including how it would be processed and settled alongside existing payment infrastructures.

Q: What legal challenges do stablecoins and tokenised deposits raise under EU law?
A: These novel instruments raise questions about classification, oversight, and integration into the EU payments ecosystem, which the book evaluates alongside virtual currencies more broadly.

Q: How does EU law address frictions in cross-border payments?
A: The book analyses the specificities and shortcomings of cross-border payments and considers how the EU's regulatory evolution aims to reduce friction and improve efficiency.

Q: Where can I buy The EU Law of Payments?
A: The EU Law of Payments is available from CLNZ Books, shipped worldwide.

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