Topic: Legal Regulation of Payment Transactions Author: Bc. Pavel Martiník Supervisor: JUDr. Petr Kotáb, Ph.D. Regulation of payment services plays a key role in this era driven by escalating digitalization. The aim of this Thesis is to depict current challenges that this area of financial law faces and to propose a basis for regulation that can be implemented in the Czech Republic. The main topic of this Thesis is virtual currencies, more specifically Bitcoins and their status within the system of payment services regulations. After a short introduction, the first chapter of this Thesis describes theoretical background of payment services regulation, especially general and specific aims of legislation in this area of financial law, by addressing it in full context of private and public law. Besides that, it also briefly illustrates the history of payment services and money. The next chapter deals with current regulation that has been adopted in the Czech Republic. Besides virtual currencies, electronic money is discussed in full detail due to its similar features with virtual currencies. Furthermore, foreign regulation of payment systems is briefly described in order to provide a comparison with the Czech Republic. Therefore, both Czech and foreign regulations dealing with virtual currencies that...

La monnaie est au coeur des rapports de droit et d’obligation qui se créent dans les transactions des plus simples au plus complexes. Cette prépondérance de la monnaie trouve sa justification dans ses fonctions juridiques et économiques d’instrument de mesure, de réserve de la valeur de biens et services, et également de sa fonction de moyen de paiement. Les flux quotidiens de monnaie révèlent cette importance. Si ces rapports de droit doublés d’une dimension économique sont habituellement confinés dans un cadre géographique étatique, ils suivent aujourd’hui une tendance à l’internationalisation. La circulation de la monnaie suit la même tendance en dépassant le simple cadre des États. Pour assurer le transfert de la monnaie par-delà les frontières, diverses techniques ont pendant longtemps été utilisées. Les premières apparurent dans les foires du Moyen Âge avec l’utilisation des effets de commerce (lettre de change et billet à ordre) et plus tardivement du chèque. Ces premières techniques traditionnelles qui ont la particularité de reposer sur du support papier déclinent et cèdent la place à de nouvelles techniques (virement électronique, carte électronique, porte-monnaie électronique). L’exigence de célérité inhérente à l’activité commerciale a fait ressentir un besoin d’innovation qui s’est traduit par la création de nouvelles techniques de transfert de la monnaie voire d’une nouvelle forme de monnaie : la « monnaie électronique ». Une autre innovation majeure réside dans l’émergence grâce à l’informatique des « systèmes de paiement » qui constituent un nouveau cadre de réalisation des transferts de fonds.L’élément d’extranéité inhérent au caractère international de l’utilisation des nouvelles techniques de transfert de monnaie pose la récurrente problématique des conflits de lois. Si pour les techniques traditionnelles de transferts de fonds, des initiatives d’uniformisation (conventions de Genève relatives à la lettre de change et au chèque) ont permis de résoudre à certains égards cette difficulté, il n’existe pas pour l’heure un cadre légal spécifique régissant l’utilisation internationale des nouvelles techniques de transfert de fonds. Il n’existe non plus à l’échelle internationale, de texte législatif régissant les nouveaux systèmes de transferts de fonds. Face à ce vide législatif, ne convient-il pas de prendre en considération la nature contractuelle des relations qui se nouent grâce à l’informatique dans les systèmes de transferts de fonds et de déterminer une « loi contractuelle » qui aurait vocation à régir les nouvelles techniques de transferts de fonds présentant un caractère international ? Cette thèse se propose à cet effet de démontrer la nature contractuelle des divers rapports qui se nouent dans les systèmes des transferts internationaux de fonds. Une telle qualification contractuelle en amont permet de soutenir en aval l’idée d’une applicabilité d’un régime contractuel aux nouvelles techniques de transferts de fonds. / Legal relations are based essentially on the monetary obligations. The dominant role of money is explained by its legal and economic functions. The daily flow of money transfers attest this importance. If those legal and economic relations are usually located in a limited geographical area, they now follow a movement towards internationalization. The circulation of money also follows the same movement beyond the simple framework of a country. To ensure the funds transfer across borders, various techniques have long time allowed to make international money transfers. Early techniques appeared in fairs of the middle Ages, with the use of commercial paper (bill of exchange or promissory note) and later the check. These traditional instruments which have the characteristic of being based on the paper declined to give way to new techniques. The celerity required by business, has created a need of innovation. It explains the creation of new techniques of money transfer and a new form of currency: the "electronic money”. Another important innovation is the emergence through the computing, "systems" that are a new framework of funds transfers.The foreign element related to international nature of the new techniques of money transfer raises the legal problem of conflict of laws. If for traditional techniques of fund transfer, standardization initiatives (Geneva Conventions on bills of exchange and checks) seem to have solved this problem, there is not presently, any uniform law governing the international use of new techniques of funds transfer. So, is it necessary to consider the nature of contractual relationships which are formed thanks to computing in systems in order to determine a “contract law” able to govern the new techniques of international funds transfers.

This thesis sheds light on the functioning and characteristics of payment systems to serve as a foundation for understanding the drivers for higher payment system efficiency. Its central goal is to develop insights into the determinants of collective payment choice suitable to lower payment costs to society. So far, the institutional environment, as potential important influence on the payment instrument mix, has not been focused on in the literature. Therefore, particular emphasis is laid on the empirical analysis of the impact of institutional factors on the share of card payments on consumer spending at the point of sale (POS). For this, a unique panel data set is constructed covering the eight most important European payment markets ranked by non-cash transaction volumes. The empirical results allow formulating conditions necessary to achieve a more efficient payment mix. They also form a basis for the assessment of related policy measures with a focus on the SEPA project in terms of their efficiency enhancing effect. Future research could possibly build upon the panel data collected.:1 Introduction 1.1 Payment behaviour in selected European countries 1.2 Research question and approach 2 Foundations: Payment systems and markets 2.1 Functioning of payment systems 2.1.1 Payments, market participants and payment system 2.1.2 Payment instruments and methods 2.1.3 Clearing and settlement arrangements 2.1.4 First observations on obstacles to payment systems development 2.2 Network character of payment markets 2.2.1 Theories of networks 2.2.2 Demand-side network effects in payment markets 2.2.3 Two-sided markets and payment cards 2.2.4 Supply-side economies of scale and open access to infrastructure 2.2.5 Obstacles to payment system development 3 Efficiency of payment systems 3.1 Research on payment infrastructure costs 3.1.1 Efficiency of interbank retail payment systems 3.1.2 Efficiency of intrabank payment processing 3.1.3 Factors influencing infrastructure efficiency 3.2 Research on payment instrument costs at the POS 3.2.1 Methodology and classification of the literature 3.2.2 Estimates of payment costs at the POS 3.2.3 Indicative efficiency ranking of payment instruments 4 Research on payment instrument choice at the POS 4.1 Data sources and categorisation of payment choice determinants 4.2 Price characteristics of payment instruments 4.3 Non-price characteristics of payment instruments 4.4 Transaction attributes 4.5 Constraints on payment choice 4.6 Developing an institutional view of payment choice 5 Empirical analysis: Institutional determinants shaping the POS payment mix 5.1 Two-step modelling approach 5.2 Panel construction and exploration of key data series 5.2.1 Panel data collection and overview of variables 5.2.2 Card usage and cash holding 5.2.3 Payment card diffusion and POS terminal density 5.3 European card schemes and markets 5.3.1 Institutional data collection 5.3.2 Description of European card markets 5.3.3 Overview of institutional data series 5.4 Payment decision 5.4.1 Development of the model and possible extensions 5.4.2 Discussion of the regression results 5.4.3 Diagnostic tests 5.5 Sourcing decision 5.5.1 Diffusion of payment cards 5.5.2 Density of POS terminals 5.5.3 Cash holding and availability at ATMs 5.6 Conclusions: Institutional determinants of payment choice 5.6.1 Linking empirical and theoretical analysis 5.6.2 Route for further research 6 Prospects for an efficient European payment mix 6.1 Objectives for establishing a European payment markets 6.2 SEPA for cards regulatory framework 6.2.1 Regulatory ecosystem 6.2.2 Regulatory framework set by European authorities 6.2.3 Standardization industry initiatives 6.3 Remaining obstacles for an efficient payment mix and outlook Appendix 6.3.1 A–1: Credit- and debit-based payment mechanism 6.3.2 A–2: Multilateral settlement: Access, settlement assets and methods 6.3.3 A–3: Statistical properties of variables 6.3.4 A-4: Unit root tests References