- The regulations accommodate two new payment services: payment initiation services and account aggregators
- Gives initiators and aggregators access to bank accounts, with prior authorization from customers
- The maximum losses that a customer must assume in case of unauthorized payment (loss or theft) are reduced from 150 to 50 euros
The Council of Ministers approved in the first round the Draft Bill of Payment Services with which the European Directive 2015/2366 is transposed. The new regulations, known as PSD2, create an integrated framework for this type of services in the European Union and aims to meet the new challenges and changes in card operations via the Internet or mobile phones, as well as strengthen security in the electronic payments
The European directive will introduce different developments. First, two new paid services will be accommodated. On the one hand, to the services of initiation of payments, which are intermediaries, generally between merchants and consumers, that guarantee the payment of the consumer to the merchant directly, constituting an alternative to the payments with cards. To these are added, on the other hand, the information services on accounts (account aggregators), which are entities that consolidate all the information of the various accounts that a user has open in different entities and classify it by categories (expense categories or income, for example). However, entities that are dedicated exclusively to one of these two payment services will have lower requirements than the rest.
Thus, the new European regulation on payments entails fundamental changes in the industry by giving third parties access to the infrastructure of the banks. The PSD2 regulates, in fact, third-party access to bank customer accounts, either to add the information (account aggregators) or to the start of the payment process (payment initiators), on behalf and prior Customer authorization
In turn, with the aim of improving security, the regulations include as a novelty the requirement of a reinforced authentication of the client in online access to accounts.
On the other hand, the maximum losses that a customer must assume in the event of an unauthorized payment transaction as a result of fraudulent use, loss or theft of the card or other payment instrument are reduced from 150 to 50 euros. And the response period for the resolution by the entities of the claims of the users of payment services is reduced (to 15 days, compared to the two months established above).
But the Government has wanted to go beyond the transposition and has established the obligation of any entrepreneur or professional to offer consumers the possibility of using any payment instrument subject to this law, as an alternative to cash, in transactions whose amount exceed the amount of 30 euros. The available payment instrument must be advertised somewhere visible in the premises, establishment or facilities of the employer or professional.
The text must obtain the corresponding opinions and will return to the Council of Ministers to be approved as a Bill and begin the parliamentary process.
