Stick beats carrot; Payments in the euro zone.(Euro-zone payments)(international money transfer )

Gentle persuasion may not be enough to create a single payments area

THIS week 59 banks put their name to a project to enable direct debits across European borders by 2008. It is but a small step on a slow journey. Seven years after the birth of the euro and four years after notes and coins made their appearance, the euro zone still has a patchwork of incompatible systems for transferring money between member countries. If an estimate by the European Central Bank is to be believed, European businesses might be euro50 billion-100 billion ($60 billion-120 billion) a year…