Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

RemovedRecital 108: (108) SCA should not be circumvented notably by any unjustified reliance on SCA exemptions. Clear definitions of Merchant Initiated Transactions (MITs) and of Mail Orders or Telephone Orders (MOTOs) should be introduced since these notions, which may be relied upon to justify non-application of SCA, are diversely understood and applied and are subject to abusive reliance. Regarding MITs, strong customer authentication should be applied at the set-up of the initial mandate, without the need to apply SCA for subsequent merchant-initiated payment transactions. Regarding MOTOs, only the initiation of payment transactions - not their execution - should be non-digital for a transaction to be considered as a MOTO and, therefore, not be covered by the obligation to apply SCA. However, payment transactions based on paper-based payment orders, mail orders or telephone orders placed by the payer should still entail security requirements and checks by the payment service provider of the payer allowing authentication of the payment transaction. SCA should also not be circumvented by practices including resorting to an acquirer established outside of the Union to escape the SCA requirements. At the same time, SCA should always be provided free of charge.

Added(8) It is appropriate to dissociate the service of enabling cash to be withdrawn from a payment account from the activity of servicing a payment account, as the providers of cash withdrawal services may not service payment accounts. The services of issuing payment instruments and of acquiring payment transactions, which were listed together in point 5 of the Annex to Directive (EU) 2015/2366 as if one could not be offered without the other, should be presented as two different payment services. Listing issuing and acquiring services separately should, together with distinct definitions of each service, clarify that the issuing and acquiring services may be offered separately by payment service providers.

RemovedRecital 110: (110) To improve financial inclusion, and in line with Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council51 on accessibility requirements for products and services, all payment service users, including persons with disabilities, older persons, persons with low digital skills and those who do not have access to digital devices such as smartphones, should benefit from the protection against fraud which is provided by SCA, in particular when it comes to the use of remote digital payment transactions and online access to payment accounts as fundamental financial services. With the introduction of SCA, certain consumers in the Union found it impossible to carry out online transactions because of their material incapability of performing SCA. Therefore, payment service providers should ensure that their customers can benefit from various methods to perform SCA which are adapted to their needs and situations. These methods should not depend on one single technology, device or mechanism, or on the possession of a smartphone or another smart device.

Added(9) The exclusion from the scope of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of certain categories of operators of automated teller machines (ATM) has proven difficult to apply in practice. Therefore, the category of ATM operators which were excluded from the requirement to be authorised as a payment service provider under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 should be replaced by a new category of ATM operators which do not service payment accounts. While those operators are not subject to the authorisation requirements under Directive (EU) XXX [PSD3], they should however be subject to requirements on fees transparency in situations where such ATM operators levy charges for cash withdrawals.

RemovedRecital 122: (122) Without prejudice to the right of customers to bring action in courts, Member States should ensure the existence of easily accessible, adequate, independent, impartial, transparent and effective ADR procedures between payment service providers and payment service users. Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council53 provides that the protection afforded to consumers by the mandatory rules of the law of the country in which they have their habitual residence is not to be undermined by any contractual terms concerning the law applicable to the contract. With a view to establishing an efficient and effective dispute resolution procedure, Member States should ensure that payment service providers subscribe to an ADR procedure in compliance with the quality requirements laid down in Directive 2013/11/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council54 , to resolve disputes before resorting to a court. Designated competent authorities should notify the Commission of a competent quality ADR entity or entities on their territory to resolve national and cross-border disputes and to cooperate with regard to disputes concerning rights and obligations pursuant to this Regulation. ADR procedures should be obligatory for payment service providers.

Added(10) To further improve access to cash, which is a priority of the Commission, merchants should be allowed to offer, in physical shops, cash provision services even in the absence of a purchase by a customer, without having to obtain a payment service provider authorisation or being an agent of a payment institution. Those cash provision services should, however, be subject to the obligation to disclose fees charged to the customer, if any. These services should be provided by retailers on a voluntary basis and should depend on the availability of cash at the retailer.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 2 – point j – point iii: deleted

Added(11) The exclusion from the scope of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of payment transactions from the payer to the payee through a commercial agent acting on behalf of the payer or the payee has been applied very differently across Member States. The concept of commercial agents is typically defined in national civil law, which might diverge form Member State to Member State, leading to inconsistent treatment of the same services in different jurisdictions. The concept of commercial agents under that exclusion should therefore be harmonised and clarified by making reference to the definition of commercial agents as laid down in Council Directive 86/653/EEC. In addition, further clarity should be provided on the conditions under which payment transactions from the payer to the payee through commercial agents may be excluded from the scope of this Regulation. This is achieved by requiring that agents should be authorised via an agreement with either the payer or the payee to negotiate or conclude the sale or purchase of goods or services on behalf of only the payer or only the payee, but not both of them, regardless of whether or not the commercial agent is in the possession of client’s funds. Electronic commerce platforms that act as commercial agents on behalf of both individual buyers and sellers without buyers or sellers having any real margin or autonomy to negotiate or to conclude the sale or purchase of goods or services should not be excluded from the scope of this Regulation. The European Banking Authority (EBA) should develop guidelines on the exclusion for payment transactions from the payer to the payee through a commercial agent to provide further clarity and convergence among competent authorities. Those guidelines may include a repository of use cases typically covered by the commercial agent exclusion.

RemovedThis Regulation should cover instruments such as grocery or meal vouchers, which currently often face a high cap from merchants and, hence, discourage merchants from accepting such vouchers.

Added(12) The exclusion from the scope of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 related to specific-purpose instruments has been applied differently across Member States, although service providers whose instruments were covered by that exclusion were required to notify their activity to the competent authorities. The EBA provided further guidance in its ‘Guidelines on the limited network exclusion under PSD2’ of 24 February 2022. Despite these attempts to clarify the application of the exclusion related to specific-purpose instruments there are still service providers that provide services which involve substantial payment volumes and a variety of products offered to a large number of customers that seek to make use of that exclusion. In these cases, consumers do not benefit from the necessary safeguards and the services should not benefit from the exclusion for specific-purpose instruments. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify that it should not be possible to use the same specific-purpose instrument to make payment transactions to acquire goods and services within more than one limited network or to acquire an unlimited range of goods and services.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 7: 7. By [ OP please insert the date= one year after the date of entry into force of this Regulation], the EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards specifying the criteria for the exclusion for payment transactions from the payer to the payee through a commercial agent referred to in paragraph 2, point (b) of this Article. The EBA shall submit the draft regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph to the Commission by ... [one year from the date of entry into force of this Regulation]. / Power is delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by adopting the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.

Added(13) To assess whether a limited network should be excluded from scope, the geographical location of the points of acceptance of such network as well as the number of the points of acceptance should be considered. Specific-purpose instruments should allow the holder to acquire goods or services only in the physical premises of the issuer, whereas usage in an online store environment should not be covered by the notion of premises of the issuer. Specific-purpose instruments should include, depending on the respective contractual regime, cards that can only be used in a particular chain of stores or a particular shopping centre, fuel cards, membership cards, public transport cards, parking ticketing, meal vouchers or vouchers for specific services, which may be subject to a specific tax or labour legal framework designed to promote the use of such instruments to meet the objectives laid down in social legislation, such as childcare vouchers or ecological vouchers. At the same time, the Member States’ regulatory environment for vouchers should ensure the acceptability of such vouchers.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point 36 a (new): (36a) 'e-wallet provider' means a provider that offers consumers an interface to manage one or more payment instruments, such as payment cards, in one application without possessing at any point in time the funds to be transferred;

Added(14) The exclusion relating to certain payment transactions by means of telecom or information technology devices should focus specifically on micro-payments for digital content and voice-based services. A clear reference to payment transactions for the purchase of electronic tickets should be kept to so that customers can still easily order, pay for, obtain and validate electronic tickets from any location and at any time using mobile phones or other devices. Electronic tickets allow and facilitate the delivery of services that consumers could otherwise purchase in paper ticket form and include transport, entertainment, car parking and entry to venues, but exclude physical goods. Payment transactions by a specified provider of electronic communications networks performed from or via an electronic device and charged to the related bill to collect charitable donations should also be excluded. It should apply only where the value of payment transactions is below a specified threshold.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point 39: (39) ‘unique identifier’ means a combination of letters, numbers or symbols specified by the payment service provider to the payment service user and to be provided by the payment service user to identify unambiguously another payment service user or the payment account of that other payment service user for a payment transaction, as referred to in Regulation (EU) No 260/2012;

Added(15) The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) has facilitated the creation of Union wide ‘payment factories’ and ‘collection factories’, allowing for the centralisation of payment transactions of the same group. In that respect, payment transactions between a parent undertaking and its subsidiary or between subsidiaries of the same parent undertaking which are provided by a payment service provider belonging to the same group should be excluded from the scope of this Regulation. The collection of payment orders and the receipt of funds on behalf of a group by a parent undertaking or its subsidiary for onward transmission to another payment service provider should not be considered as a payment service.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point 53: (53) ‘commercial trade name’ means the name which is commonly used by the payee in the trade and marketing of its business to identify itself to the payer;

Added(16) The provision of payment services requires the support of technical services. Those technical services include the processing and storage of data, payment gateway services, trust and privacy protection services, data and entity authentication, information technology (IT) and communication network provision, provision and maintenance of consumer-facing interfaces used to collect payment information, including terminals and devices used for payment services. Payment initiation services and account information services are not technical services.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point 55 a (new): (55a) 'electronic communications service provider' means any provider of electronic communications services as defined in Article 2(4) of Directive 2018/19721a of the European Parliament and of the Council (European electronic communications code) or a core platform service as defined in Article 2(2) of Regulation (EU) 2022/19251b of the European Parliament an of the Council (Digital Markets Act); / 1a Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (OJ L 321, 17.12.2018, p. 36). / 1b Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (OJ L 265, 12.10.2022, p. 1).

Added(17) Technical services do not constitute payment services as such as technical service providers do not enter at any time into possession of the funds to be transferred. They should therefore be excluded from the definition of payment services. Those services should however be subject to certain requirements, such as those on liability for failure to support the application of strong customer authentication▐.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 a (new): For the purpose of paragraph 1, point (39), the EBA, taking into account relevant market practices, shall develop draft regulatory technical standards setting out an exhaustive list of the methods that can be used as a unique identifier. / The EBA shall submit the draft regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph to the Commission by ... [12 months from the date of entry into force of this Regulation]. / Power is delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by adopting the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.

Added(18) Taking into account the rapid evolution of the retail payments market and the emergence of new payment services and payment solutions, it is appropriate to adapt some of the definitions under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 to the realities of the market in order to ensure that Union legislation remains fit for purpose and technology neutral.

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 2: 2. Where a currency conversion service is offered prior to the initiation of the payment transaction and where that currency conversion service is offered at an ATM, at the point of sale or by the payee, the party offering the currency conversion service to the payer shall disclose to the payer all charges and the exchange rate to be used for converting the payment transaction. Those charges shall include any mark-up over the latest available applicable foreign exchange rate issued by the relevant central bank. The information on charges and the exchange rate shall be visible in a prominent and transparent manner.

Added(19) The clarification of the process and the various steps to be followed for the execution of a payment transaction is of significant importance for the rights and obligations of the parties involved in a payment transaction and for the application of strong customer authentication. The process leading to the execution of a payment transaction is either initiated by the payer or on his/her behalf, or by the payee. The payer initiates the payment transaction by placing a payment order. Once the payment order is placed, the payment service provider checks if the transaction has been authorised and authenticated including, where applicable, by applying strong customer authentication, and the payment service provider then validates the payment order. The payment service provider then takes the relevant steps to execute the payment transaction, including the transfer of funds.

RemovedArticle 7 – paragraph 1: Natural or legal persons providing cash withdrawal services as referred to in Article 38 of Directive (EU) [PSD3] shall provide in a transparent, distinguishable and understandable way to their customers information on any charges, including the exchange rate and any mark-up over the latest available applicable foreign exchange rate issued by the relevant central bank, directly before the customer carries out the withdrawal as well as upon receipt of the cash when the transaction is completed.

Added(20) Given the diverging views identified by the Commission in it its review of the implementation of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 and highlighted by the European Banking Authority (EBA) in its opinion of 23 June 2022 on the review of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, it is necessary to clarify the definition of a payment accounts. The determining criterion for the categorisation of an account as payment account lies in the ability to perform daily payment transactions from such an account. The possibility of making payment transactions to a third party from an account or of benefiting from such transactions carried out by a third party is a defining feature of the concept of payment account. A payment account should therefore be defined as an account that is used for sending and receiving funds to and from third parties. Any account that possesses those characteristics should be considered a payment account and should be accessed for the provision of payment initiation and account information services. Situations where another intermediary account is needed to execute payment transactions from or to third parties should not fall under the definition of a payment account. Savings accounts are not used for sending and receiving funds to or from a third party, excluding them therefore from the definition of a payment account.

RemovedArticle 13 – paragraph 1 – introductory part: 1. Payment service providers shall provide in a transparent, distinguishable and understandable way to payment service users the following information and conditions:

Added(21) Given the emergence of new types of payment instruments and the uncertainties prevailing in the market as to their legal qualification, the definition of a ‘payment instrument’ should be further specified by providing some examples to illustrate what constitutes or does not constitute a payment instrument, bearing in mind the principle of technology neutrality.

RemovedArticle 13 – paragraph 1 – point f: (f) where applicable, the estimated charges for currency conversion in relation to credit transfers and money remittance transactions, expressed as a percentage mark-up or a mark-up in monetary value in the payer's currency over the latest available applicable foreign exchange reference rate issued by the relevant central bank;

Added(22) Despite the fact that Near-Field Communication (NFC) enables the initiation of a payment transaction, considering it as a fully-fledged ‘payment instrument’ would pose some challenges, for example for the application of strong customer authentication for contactless payments at the point of sale and of the payment service provider’s liability regime. NFC should therefore rather be considered as a functionality of a payment instrument and not as a payment instrument as such.

RemovedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – introductory part: The payment service provider shall provide in a transparent, distinguishable and understandable way the following information and conditions to the payment service user:

Added(23) The definition of ‘payment instrument’ under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 referred to a ‘personalised device’. Since there are pre-paid cards where the name of the holder of the instrument is not printed on the card, applying that reference could leave those types of cards outside the scope of the definition of a payment instrument. The definition of ‘payment instrument’ should, therefore, be amended to refer to ‘individualised’ devices instead of ‘personalised’ ones, clarifying that pre-paid cards where the name of the holder of the instrument is not printed on the card fall within the scope of this Regulation.

RemovedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – point c – point v: (v) where applicable, the estimated charges for currency conversion services in relation to a credit transfer expressed as a percentage mark-up or a mark-up in monetary value in the currency of the payer's account over the latest available applicable foreign exchange reference rate issued by the relevant central bank;

Added(24) So-called digital ‘pass-through wallets’, involving the tokenisation of an existing payment instrument, for example a payment card, are to be considered as technical services and should thus be excluded from the definition of payment instrument as, in the Commission’s view, a token cannot be regarded as being itself a payment instrument but, rather, a ‘payment application’ within the meaning of Article 2(21) of Regulation (EU) 2015/751 of the European Parliament and of the Council. However, some other categories of digital wallets, namely pre-paid electronic wallets such as ‘staged-wallets’ where users can store money for future online transactions, should be considered a payment instrument and their issuance a payment service.

RemovedArticle 32 – paragraph 1 – introductory part: 1. A credit institution may refuse to open or may close a payment account for a payment institution for its agents or distributors or for an applicant for a license as a payment institution in cases where it is justified on objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate grounds, in particular in the following cases:

Added(25) Technological developments since the adoption of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 have transformed the way account information services are provided. The companies offering those services provide payment service users with aggregated online information on one or more of their payment accounts held with one or more payment service providers and accessed via online interfaces of the account servicing payment service provider. Payment service users are thus able to have an overall and structured view of their payment accounts immediately and at any given moment.

RemovedArticle 32 – paragraph 1 – point e a (new): (ea) the competent authority has refused to grant or has withdrawn an authorisation as a payment institution.

Added(26) The Commission’s review highlighted the fact that authorised account information service providers sometimes provide payment account data that they have aggregated not to the consumer from which they received their permission to access and aggregate the data, but to another party, to enable it to provide other services to the consumer using the data. There are however diverging views as to whether this activity falls under the regulated account information service. The Commission considers that this ‘license-as-a-service’ evolution of the ‘open banking’ business model can be a source of innovative, data-based services, to the ultimate benefit of end-users. Indeed, that business model enables end-users to give access to their payment account data in order to receive other - non-payment - services including lending, accounting, creditworthiness assessment. It is however essential that payment service users know precisely who accesses their payment account data, on what legal grounds and for what purpose. Payment service users should be made fully aware of and authorise the transmission of their data to another company. That new open banking-based business model requires a modification of the definition of account information services, to clarify that the information aggregated by the authorised account information service provider may be transmitted to a third party to enable that third party to provide another service to the end-user, with the end-user’s permission. To provide consumers with adequate protection for their payment account data and legal certainty about the status of entities accessing their data, the service of data aggregation from payment accounts should always be provided by a regulated entity on the basis of a license, even where the data is ultimately transmitted to another service provider.

RemovedArticle 32 – paragraph 4: 4. A payment institution or its agents or distributors, or an applicant for a license as a payment institution which is the subject of a negative decision by a credit institution on the opening of a payment account or of a decision on closure of the payment accounts may appeal to a competent authority.

Added(27) Money remittance is a payment service that is usually based on cash provided by a payer to a payment service provider, without any payment accounts being created in the name of the payer or the payee, which remits the corresponding amount to a payee or to another payment service provider acting on behalf of the payee. In some Member States, supermarkets, merchants and other retailers provide to the public a service enabling the public to pay utilities and other regular household bills. Those bill-paying services should be treated as money remittance.

RemovedArticle 32 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1: The EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards specifying the harmonised format and information to be contained in the notification and motivation referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article and specifying the situations in which a credit institution is able to refuse to open or is able to close a payment account for a payment institution, its agents or distributors or for an applicant for a licence as a payment institution.

Added(28) The definition of funds should cover ▐central bank money issued for retail use, including banknotes and coins, and any possible future central bank digital currency, e-money and commercial bank money. Central bank money issued for use between the central bank and commercial banks, i.e. for wholesale use, should not be covered.

RemovedArticle 36 – paragraph 1 – point b: (b) the dedicated interface shall apply re-direction to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the personalised security credentials and of authentication codes transmitted by or through the payment initiation service provider or the account information service provider;

Added(29) Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of 31 May 2023 on markets in crypto-assets lays down that electronic-money tokens shall be deemed to be electronic money for the purposes of that Regulation. To avoid duplicative requirements, it is important that the provisions of this Regulation clearly set out the instances where electronic money tokens should instead be subject to this Regulation.

RemovedArticle 37 – title: Data access for third parties

Added(30) To preserve the confidence of the electronic money holder, electronic money needs to be redeemable. Redeemability does not imply that the funds received in exchange for electronic money should be regarded as deposits or other repayable funds for the purpose of Directive 2013/36/EU. Redemption should be possible at any time, at par value, without any possibility to agree on a minimum threshold for redemption. Redemption should, in general, be granted free of charge. However, it should be possible to request a proportionate and cost-based fee, without prejudice to national legislation on tax or social matters or any obligations on the electronic money issuer under other relevant Union or national legislation, including anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing rules, to any action targeting the freezing of funds or any specific measure linked to the prevention and investigation of crimes.

RemovedArticle 37 – paragraph 2: 2. Account servicing payment service providers shall provide account information services providers with the information from designated payment accounts and associated payment transactions that is needed to fulfil the contract with their payment service users, provided that this information does not include sensitive payment data.

Added(31) Payment service providers need access to payment systems to provide payment services to users. Those payment systems typically include four-party card schemes as well as major systems processing credit transfers and direct debits. To ensure equality of treatment throughout the Union between the different categories of authorised payment service providers it is necessary to clarify the rules concerning access to payment systems. Such access may be direct or indirect via another participant in that payment system. Such access should be subject to requirements that ensure integrity and stability of those payment systems. To that end the payment system operator should carry out a risk assessment of a payment service provider which applies for direct participation; that risk assessment should examine all relevant risks, including where applicable settlement risk, operational risk, credit risk, liquidity risk and business risk. Each payment service provider applying for participation in a payment system should bear the risk of its own choice of system and provide proof to the payment system that its internal arrangements are sufficiently robust against those types of risk. Payment system operators should only reject an application for direct participation by a payment service provider if the payment service provider is unable to respect the rules of the system or poses an unacceptably high level of risk.

RemovedArticle 37 – paragraph 3: 3. Account servicing payment service providers shall provide payment initiation service providers with precisely the same information needed on the initiation and execution of the payment transaction provided or made available to the payment service user as when the transaction is initiated directly by the payment service user. That information shall be provided immediately after receipt of the payment order and on an ongoing basis until the payment is final.

Added(31a) To process digital payments online or offline, it is essential that front end payment service providers obtain access to NFC technology on mobile devices. The components of such technology include, in particular but not exclusively, NFC antennas and the so-called secure elements of mobile devices (e.g.: Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC), embedded SE (eSE), and microSD etc). It is therefore necessary to ensure that, whenever needed to provide payment services, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices or electronic communications service providers do not refuse access to NFC antennas and secure elements. To that end, in the digital economy, providers of front-end payment services should be entitled to store software on relevant mobile devices’ hardware in order to make transactions technically possible both online and offline. For that purpose, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices and electronic communications service providers should be obliged to provide access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to all hardware and software components when needed for online and offline transactions. In all instances, such operators should be obliged to provide adequate capacity on relevant hardware and software features in mobile devices to process online payment transactions and for storing funds on mobile devices for offline payment transactions. That obligation should be without prejudice to Article 6(7) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which obliges gatekeepers to provide, free of charge, effective interoperability with, and access for the purposes of interoperability to, the operating system, hardware or software features of mobile devices and which is applicable to existing and new digital means of payments.

RemovedArticle 37 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. This Article shall be applied in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679. / The EBA, in close cooperation with the European Data Protection Board, shall develop guidelines on the implementation of this Article.

Added(32) Payment system operators should have in place rules and procedures on access which are proportionate objective non-discriminatory and transparent. Payment system operators should not discriminate against payment institutions as regards participation if the system rules can be respected and there is no unacceptable risk to the system. Such systems include, amongst others, those designated under Directive 98/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. In cases where the payment system in question is already subject to oversight by the European System of Central Banks under Regulation of the European Central Bank (EU) No 795/2014, the central bank or banks exercising that oversight should monitor respect of those rules in the framework of their oversight. In cases of other payment systems, Member States should designate national competent authorities to ensure that payment system infrastructure operators respect such requirements.

RemovedArticle 43 – paragraph 2 – point a – introductory part: (a) provide the payment service user, to the extent that the information is possessed by the account servicing payment service provider, with an overview of each ongoing permission given for the purposes of account information services or payment initiation services, including:

Added(33) To ensure fair competition between payment service providers, a participant in a payment system which provides services in relation to such a system to an authorised or registered payment service provider should also, when requested to do so, grant access to such services in an objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory manner to any other authorised or registered payment service provider.

RemovedArticle 43 – paragraph 2 – point a – point v a (new): (va) the dates on which data was accessed and the type of data that was retrieved during that access.

Added(34) The provisions relating to access to payment systems should not apply to systems set up and operated by a single payment service provider. Such payment systems can operate either in direct competition to other payment systems or, more typically, in a market niche not covered by other payment systems. Such systems include three-party schemes, including three-party card schemes, to the extent that those schemes never operate as de facto four-party card schemes, including by relying upon licensees, agents or co-branding partners. Such systems also typically include payment services offered by telecommunication providers where the scheme operator is the payment service provider both to the payer and to the payee, and internal systems of banking groups. To stimulate the competition that can be provided by such closed payment systems to established mainstream payment systems, access to those closed proprietary payment systems should not be granted to third parties. However, such closed systems should always be subject to Union and national competition rules which may require that access be granted to the schemes in order to maintain effective competition in payments markets.

RemovedArticle 43 – paragraph 2 – point b: (b) allow the payment service user to withdraw data access for all account information services or payment initiation service providers or for a given account information service or payment initiation service provider;

Added(35) Payment institutions need to be able to open and maintain an account with a credit institution to meet their licensing requirements as regards safeguarding of customer funds. However, as evidenced in particular by the EBA in its Opinion of 5 January 2022, despite the provisions on payment institution accounts with a commercial bank laid down in Directive (EU) 2015/2366, some payment institutions or companies applying for a payment institution license still face practices from some credit institutions which either refuse to open an account for them or close an account where one exists, based on perceived higher risk of money laundering or terrorism financing. Those so-called ‘de-risking’ practices create significant competitive challenges for payment institutions.

RemovedArticle 43 – paragraph 2 – point c: deleted

Added(36) Credit institutions should therefore provide a payment account to payment institutions, and to applicants for a license as a payment institution, as well as to their agents and distributors, except in exceptional cases where there are serious grounds to refuse access. It is necessary to include applicants for a license as a payment institution in that provision, given the fact that a bank account where clients’ funds can be safeguarded is a prerequisite to obtain a payment institution license. The grounds for refusal should include serious grounds for suspicion of illegal activities being pursued by or via the payment institution, or a business model or risk profile which causes serious risks or excessive compliance costs for the credit institution. For instance, business models where payment institutions use a vast network of agents may generate significant anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance costs. A payment institution should have the right of appeal against a refusal by a credit institution to a competent authority designated by a Member State. In order to facilitate the exercise of that appeal right, credit institutions should motivate in writing and in detail any refusal to provide an account, or a subsequent closure of an account. That motivation should refer to specific elements relating to the payment institution in question, not to general or generic considerations. To facilitate treatment by competent authorities of appeals against account refusal or withdrawal and motivation thereof, the EBA should develop implementing technical standards harmonising the presentation of such motivations.