The European Union has explored cross-border economic initiatives in recent years as officials work toward establishing a single EU economic market. Easing barriers to cross-border payments, commerce and lending are all centers of focus for the European Commission, which revealed last week proposals for new rules to streamline cross-border transactions.

New reports released Tuesday (May 12) have revealed a new strategy for EU officials. The Euro Banking Association has reportedly published a new report on crypto-technologies at its EBAday conference held in Amsterdam. Reports said the paper, one of two released Tuesday, was produced by the Association’s Working Group on Electronic Alternative Payments.

The findings, however, were not definitive, and instead called for more investigation into how crypto-currencies can be utilized by the payment and banking sectors. “Crypto-technologies are a key subject for further study or transaction banking and payment processionals, especially against the background of evolving financial infrastructures,” said Vincent Brennan, EBA deputy chairman and chairman of the working group.

According to Brennan, the working paper offers an introduction to crypto-technologies and explores practical implementations for such currencies in both the short- and medium-term.

While the findings are intended to consider how the financial sector could use crypto-currencies to adapt to a changing landscape, some industry experts have championed the use of such currencies like bitcoin in cross-border payments.

In a interview with PYMNTS, entrepreneur and Align Commerce CEO Marwan Forzley explained how bitcoin could ease cross-border friction.

"Cross border is particularly painful for both payers and receivers and one interesting thing about bitcoin is that it is designed from the ground up to be global in its construction. The existing payments schemes were created a long time ago with the understanding that the payments are going to be domestic,” he said. “Bitcoin, on the other hand, was designed to be a global payments system or a global rail – there is no concept of a boundary or a country so it works really well for cross border settings and it’s designed in a way where you can move the money from point A to point B without that money necessarily needing to be domestic."