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Disclaimer:

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

Credit

Does this credit qualify as consumer credit, exclusively available to individual consumers? Or can it also be extended to legal entities?

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

Interpretation of payment instrument

What devices or procedures can be considered as payment instrument as per Art. 4(14) of PSD2?

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

Paper-based postal money orders as defined by the Universal Postal Union

1. Should postal transfers as defined by the Universal Postal Union, which are not made in paper form but by electronic means, be excluded from the scope of PSD2?     2. If postal transfers, as defined by the Universal Postal Union, in both electronic and paper format, are inseparable from the postal operator’s accounting system, should also paper-based postal transfers not fall outside the scope of PSD2?     3. Should such transfers be excluded from the scope of PSD2 in either case, or agree that the payment institution is not entitled to credit those funds to the payment service customers’ funds accounts where the money of the payment service users is kept separate?     4. Can a payment institution that is also a postal service provider simultaneously provide both PSD2 regulated services and services related to payments but outside the scope of PSD2?

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

Compliance of non-bank PSPs with the safeguarding requirements in PSD2

Where PIs and EMIs (referred to as non-bank PSPs) have direct access to central bank operated payment systems for settling payment transactions, would keeping a balance on a settlement account with the central bank/payment system, without the central bank maintaining a safeguarding account for the non-bank PSP, be compliant with the safeguarding requirements under Article 10 of PSD2?

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

Safeguarding with a credit institition in a third country

May a PI authorised and operating in an EU Member State use a credit institution based in a third country (e.g. UK) for the purpose of safeguarding funds in accordance with Art. 10(1)(a) of PSD2?

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

PISP payment order cancellation due to fraud prevention reasons

Due to fraud prevention reasons, could an ASPSP (Account Servicing Payment Service Provider) block a payment order initiated through a PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) despite having informed the PISP immediately upon authentication, that the payment was going to be executed (i.e., after having provided the PISP with the code ACSC (AcceptedSettlementCompleted) under the Berlin Group Standard)? In that scenario who should bear the liability if the payment is not executed but, nonetheless, the payee delivered the good or service promptly after being informed by the PISP of the successful initiation of the payment?Would the answer be different if the ASPSP had simply confirmed the sufficiency of funds as stated in the EBA Opinion on the implementation of the RTS on SCA and CSC (EBA-Op-2018-04)? 

  • 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

Multi-licensed entity capital requirement

Should a payment institution that also has a crowdfunding license meet the capital requirements of both authorizations in aggregate?

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

Exchange rate mark-ups part of 'all charges payable'/'currency conversion charges'

Is an exchange rate mark-up (the difference between the interbank rate and the exchange rate offered by the PSP to its PSUs) to be considered as part of ‘all charges payable’ as per PSD2 and the ‘currency conversion charges’ as per CBPR2 prior to the initiation of the payment? How should PSPs disclose this in the payment flow?

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

Consideration of own funds requirements as a comparable guarantee to the PII

Would it be acceptable to consider, has a possible comparable guarantee, an increase of own funds’ requirements, in an amount corresponding to the minimum monetary amount calculated in accordance with the EBA’s tool, while ensuring that this amount would be fulfilled with highly liquid assets?

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

Information provided to the payee on individual payment transaction

If a framework contract includes a condition on providing all required information to the payee at least once a month, is the payment service provider still obliged to provide the information to the payee after the execution of individual payment transaction? Or providing monthly information is enough and provision of information separately about each individual transaction is not required anymore?

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

Provision of the "acquiring of payment transactions" payment service in the EU

Please provide your opinion on whether the payment service – acquiring of payment transactions on an EU webshop – can be provided by a payment service provider from a third country. Please refer to Q&A 4233.

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

Card data (PAN) to be returned in AISP calls

Does the ASPSP have to return the card number (PAN) attached to a fetched payment account in case the user can access this data during a standard session with its ASPSP in the direct internet banking interface? In case of "YES", does the TPP that is fetching this data have to be PCI DSS certified, since this data has to be encrypted based on the PCI DSS requirements? Moreover, could be the "card number (PAN)" considered sensible, since it could be potentially used for fraud?

  • 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

Payment account

What is the difference between payment account, e-money account and a bank account (account held at the credit institution) in terms of allowed transactions? Is it possible to hold funds on a payment account to make future payment transactions?Is it possible to receive the salary on a payment account, if this account is not an e-money account or an account held by a credit institution, which constitute a deposit or other repayable fund?

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

The definition of payment services and in particular the definition of execution of payment transaction in relation to netting centers

1. Is an (international) non-profit association, acting as netting centre in the framework of a multilateral netting agreement entered into between its members, that receives and forward funds to and from its members through a bank account opened in its name deemed to carry out payment services falling within the scope of Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and repealing Directive 2007/64/EC ('PSD2') (e.g. the execution of payment transaction or money remittance)?2. If the netting center is deemed to carry out payment services, can the netting centre rely on exclusion of Article 3(n) of PSD2, i.e. 'payment transactions and related services between a parent undertaking and its subsidiary or between subsidiaries of the same parent undertaking, without any intermediary intervention by a payment service provider other than an undertaking belonging to the same group'?

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

Exclusion of cash withdrawal services from PSD2

If a provider offers cash ATM withdrawal services, not acting on behalf of one or more card issuers but rather through an agreement with the main payment circuits, shall this type of provision be considered exempt from the PSD2?  

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

Revocation of ASPSP's Exemption from the Contingency Mechanism due to Prolonged Service Disruption

In a scenario where an incident lasting more than two consecutive weeks preventing Payment Service Users (PSUs) from initiating their payments through a dedicated interface, considering that the Account Servicing Payment Service Provider (ASPSP) has an exemption from the contingency mechanism under Regulation (EU) 2018/389, and the National Competent Authority (NCA) has been notified about the incident: Should the National Competent Authority (NCA) revoke the ASPSP's exemption from the contingency mechanism?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2018/07 - Guidelines on the exemption from the contingency mechanism under Regulation (EU) 2018/389

Criteria for selecting the operations to be included in the calculation of fraud rates for the transaction risk analysis (TRA) exemption

Which of the following would be the correct temporal criterion for selecting the unauthorized transactions to be included in the numerator of the fraud rates calculated for the transactions risk analysis (TRA) exemption? a) the transaction date, i.e., the date on which the transaction was executed regardless of the date on which it is classified as unauthorized or fraudulent b) the registration date, i.e., the date on which the transaction is registered as unauthorized or fraudulent regardless of the date on which it was carried out 

  • 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

Secure corporate payment processes and protocols and inactivity time period

May the period time of inactivity required by the (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication (hereinafter: RTS on SCA & CSC) Article 4 (3) (d) be changed from 5 minutes to 20 minutes if the exemption based on Article 17 of RTS on SCA & CSC has been granted by the competent authority to the Payment service provider?

  • 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

PISP’s access to payable charges applied by the ASPSP on the PSU’s initiated payment via the ASPSP’s dedicated interface

Shall the account servicing payment service provider (ASPSP) make the transaction fees accessible to payment initiation service providers (PISPs) via the dedicated interface?

  • 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

Payee-initiated transactions with irregular period or variable amounts for account payments.

Please clarify whether payee-initiated account transactions available in Account Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSPs)’ online banking channels are considered discriminatory under PSD2 when not available in the PSD2 Application Programming  Interfaces (APIs). 

  • 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