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Q&As refer to the provisions in force on the day of their publication. The EBA does not systematically review published Q&As following the amendment of legislative acts. Users of the Q&A tool should therefore check the date of publication of the Q&A and whether the provisions referred to in the answer remain the same.

Please note that the Q&As related to the supervisory benchmarking exercises have been moved to the dedicated handbook page. You can submit Q&As on this topic here.

List of Q&A's

Applicability of exemption under RTS Article 16 for payee’s PSPs (acquirers)

Can an exemption under Article 16 of the RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication be applied by the payee’s payment service provider (PSP) (the acquirer) for card-based payments?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Applicability of exemption under RTS Article 11 for payee’s PSPs (acquirers)

Can an exemption under Article 11 of the RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication be applied by the payee's payment service provider (PSP) (the acquirer) for card-based payments?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Applicability of exemption from strong customer authentication (SCA) under Article 17 for card payments

Is Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2018/389 applicable for the payer’s Payment service provider (PSP) for card-based payments?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Signature performed on the screen of a digital device as a factor in a two-factor SCA

Could a signature performed on the screen of a digital device be considered a valid factor in a two-factor strong customer authentication (SCA) under the RTS – and what type of element is it?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Signature on a paper slip from a payment terminal, as a factor in a two-factor SCA

Could Signature on a paper slip from a payment terminal, be considered a valid factor in a two-factor strong customer authentication (SCA) under the RTS – and what type of element is it?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Ability of static card data to be considered a possession factor?

Can static card data (Card number PAN + cardholder name +Exp. Date + static CVV2/CVC2) be considered a as a possession factor, and if so: is it strong enough to be a valid factor in a 2-factor Strong customer authentication (SCA)?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Is the scope of the RTS on strong customer authentication (SCA) and secure communication one-leg or two-leg?

Does the PSD2 requirement on SCA, and subsequently the detailed requirements in the RTS on SCA including the practical usage of the allowed exemptions, apply also to one-leg transactions, with regards to:Transactions with the payer’s payment service providers (PSP) outside the EEA (credit transfers as well as card-based payments)?Credit transfers with the payer’s PSP inside the EEA and the payee’s PSP outside the EEA?Card-based payments with the payer’s PSP (the issuer) inside the EEA and the payee’s PSP (the acquirer) outside the EEA, when the non-EEA acquirer do support SCA?Card-based payments with the payer’s PSP (the issuer) inside the EEA and the payee’s PSP (the acquirer) outside the EEA, when the non-EEA acquirer does not support SCA?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Responsibility for comprehensive assessment according to Article 95(2) PSD2

It is not clear, whether comprehensive assessment of the operational and security risks relating to the payment services has to be carried out by the payment service providers (PSP), or it can be delegated / outsourced to a third entity (e.g. external audit firm). In case this is a responsibility of the PSP, it is not clear, whether it has to be carried by the independent internal audit department, or it has to be carried out by the department responsible for the risk function in the PSP.

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2019/04 – Guidelines on ICT and security risk management - repealing EBA/GL/2017/17

Contactless transactions - SCA

Does the cumulative count / authorised sum amount apply to any contactless authorisation request, regardless if the request was approved or not?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Contactless counting

For the purpose of counting previous cumulative contactless transactions in order to assess the eligibility of the exemption in Article 11 of the RTS, should contactless transactions initiated outside of the EEA be included?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Contactless payments at point of sale - Applications of the conditions

What activity can be considered a proper application of strong customer authentication according to the Article 11 Paragraph b of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Contactless payments at point of sale - Applications of the conditions

With respect to Article 11 Paragraph b) of the RTS can we setup control for either 150 € or 5 transactions?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Access by AISPs when customer not present up to 4 times in a 24 hour period

Is the intention that the '4 times in 24 hour period' is implemented based on 4 sessions for access for account information per consented customer account, or 4 Application Programming Interface (API) calls (where APIs are used for the decicated interface) for account information, or another basis?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Information to be provided / made available by ASPSP to payment initiation service provider (PISP)

In the context of PIS:(a) shall the ASPSP, upon initiation of the payment session, provide or make available to the PISP the IBANs/account numbers for all payment accounts from which the user can transfer funds, and the associated currencies; and(b) shall the ASPSP, in each communication session, provide or make available to the PISP/AISP the name of the payment service user that is accessing the accounts.

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Application of limits for Strong customer authentication (SCA) exemption

How should payment service providers (PSPs) apply the cumulative limits set in Articles 11 and 16 of the RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

The Implementation of the electronic communications exclusion in the voiced-based premium rate services market

Considering the organisation of the voiced-based premium rate services market, and considering the interpretations proposed for the electronic communications exclusion (ECE) in the different countries, as far as a payment transaction complies with the conditions imposed by the ECE, does the ECE apply to the whole value chain, and therefore, all the providers of electronic communications networks or services involved in payment transactions covered by the ECE should not have to register as payment institutions or agents for these operations?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Application of SCA when a PSU accesses payment transactions data older than on the last 90 days, without having access to sensitive payment data and for a period of 90 days after the last access using SCA

Could Payment Service Providers (PSPs) be allowed to choose between applying SCA(Strong Customer Authentication) or not when a PSU (Payment Service User) accesses payment transactions data older than on the last 90 days without having access to sensitive payment data and for a period of 90 days after its last access using SCA?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Operation and security risk assessment of a branch of a credit institution

Does a branch of an EU credit institution operating in another Member State have to prepare separate assessment for its payment related activity and if yes which competent authority shall be responsible for receiving the assessment - is it the competent authority of the host or the home Member State?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2019/04 – Guidelines on ICT and security risk management - repealing EBA/GL/2017/17

Interpretation of 'Active request for account information'

How should 'active request for account information' by a Payment Service User (PSU) be interpreted the wording of article 36(5)(a)(b) of the RTS SCA?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication