The following tables detail the number of payments settled via the RTGS [Real Time Gross Settlement] systems participating in or connected to TARGET, the RTGS mechanism for the Euro. Domestic Euro payments - http://www.ecb.int/target/stats/01_table5.htm Cross border Euro payments - http://www.ecb.int/target/stats/01_table3.htm Combined totals - http://www.ecb.int/target/stats/01_table1.htm [This table includes some systems that entail netting. The pertinent stat is "All TARGET payments"]. Note that the average e-gold transaction volume http://www.e-gold.com/stats.html is already about one twentieth the combined RTGS stats for all of Euroland. e-gold exceeds the daily number of domestic settlements for 12 out of 15 systems and the domestic plus cross-border combined for 11 out of 15. Note also that these systems operate only 5 days per week and are closed seven additional days for holidays. And of course none of them can allow direct end-user access because they all extend credit intraday. The fee for a cross border settlement ranges from EUR 1.75 to EUR 0.80 http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/target_en.pdf It should of course be noted that most Euro payments in these economies are cleared via netting processes of the various clearinghouse arrangements of the banking systems. It is, however, fully appropriate in an apples-to-apples sense to compare to the base money RTGS systems. A goal for e-gold is in fact to serve as reserve asset and medium of settlement for financial intermediaries. As AUG [gold, as money, denominated in grams and using e-gold as base money] emerges as a credible alternative to USD, EUR and JPY, the logic is for the banks to extend their multilateral netting facilities to include AUG and to upload their settlement sheets to the e-gold system. --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Did you know that e-gold Ltd. stores more gold on behalf of customers than many countries? See http://www.gold.org/Gra/Gra1.htm and the e-gold Examiner at http://www.e-gold.com/examiner.html for details.