available for transferring such amounts of money. Bitcoins are also a new opportunity
for transition economies in which traditional banking services are inaccessible due to
their high cost and underdeveloped financial infrastructure. Today, bitcoins can be used
in such global marketplaces as Amazon, e-Bay, Alibaba. They are also supported by
Wikipedia, WordPress Overstock, TigerDirect, etc. Bitcoin has become an official
payment instrument in Japan since April 1, 2017. Previously, the European Court ruled
that operations with bitcoins and other virtual currencies in the EU should not be
subject to value added tax. Moreover, this practice is becoming more widespread [16;
18; 33].
Thus, firstly, the world banking system can gradually lose most of the revenues
from money transfers. The commission is much smaller in mobile payments systems,
than in traditional clearing systems. Secondly, banks may lose much of their revenue
from the use of plastic cards. Thirdly, banks risk losing a significant part of their clients.
One of the benefits given to consumers of electronic wallets is the ability to easily
change banking institutions. Under these circumstances, the international payment
system Apple Pay, in our opinion, can be the most convenient way to make purchases
of goods and services with the help of phones and accounts associated with bank cards.
750 banks and more than 220 thousand US trade organizations already work with
Apple Pay system.
According to analysts of the international consulting company McKinsey,
traditional financial structures will survive only if they make significant adjustments
to their activities. In particular, they will reduce the number of bank branches, widely
use financial online and mobile services, initiate the creation of venture funds for
investment in FinTech-development. In addition, McKinsey predicts that in the future,
financial institutions may turn into a banking equivalent of server companies. If
FinTech-platforms will eventually become leaders in cooperation with both individuals
and corporate clients, the existing global banking system will crumble to a narrow set
of services. Traditional banks are already experiencing a decline in profits and are
forced to increase the value of their services. In the meantime, FinTech-companies can
be fully adjusted to the needs of depositors and borrowers, gradually develop their own
infrastructure and radically change the banking system [30; 34].
In order to adapt the European payment market to the opportunities of the united
market and to support the growth of the economies of the EU countries, the European
Commission has adopted a number of documents, namely: the Payment Services
Directive (PSD2); an application for the regulation of interbank fees for card payments.
The revised PSD2 document contains a number of new important elements for
improving the services for the implementation of international electronic payments,
which will allow to:
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