EU consults on Payments Services Directive review
Payment - Photo by Pexels
(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission launched a public consultation Tuesday to gather evidence for the revised Payment Services Directive review and to inform its work on open finance.
The revised Payment Services Directive (Directive 2015/2366/EC or "PSD2") is the basis for payment rules in the EU. It includes rules to make online payments services easier and safer, promote innovative payment services, strengthen the rights of users and protect them against fraud and abuse.
PSD2 also opened up access to customers' payment accounts data, enabling third-party providers to offer competing financial or information services and laying the ground for "open banking".
The Commission is due to report this year on the application and impact of PSD2, as announced in the retail payments strategy of September 2020. The EU executive's consultation seeks views on whether the Directive has achieved its objectives and whether amendments are needed to ensure that its rules remain relevant.
The Commission also seeks views on the broader concept of "open finance", which could cover a range of financial services, such as investment in securities, pensions, and insurance.
Data-driven finance is one of the priorities set out in the Commission's digital finance strategy, which announced an open finance framework proposal. The CMU Communication of November 2021 announced that this work would accelerate as part of the European financial data space.
In the broader framework of the data strategy for Europe, the Commission says the objective is to make the most of the data economy for EU capital markets, consumers and businesses.
"The PSD2 has driven innovation in retail payments, to the benefit of consumers and financial service providers," said Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness: "It is now time to take stock with all stakeholders, and prepare our next steps. We want to boost innovation and increase consumer choice in payments and open finance, while keeping the companies and people who generate data in control."
The public consultation is seeking views on both the PSD2 review and the open finance framework. It is available in all EU languages and will run for 12 weeks. You can have your say here.
In addition, the Commission has also launched two targeted consultations on the PSD2 and the open finance framework. The targeted consultations require specialist knowledge. They will also run for 12 weeks and are available only in English.