While divisions continue over the future regulatory technical standards (RTS) for the revised 'Payment Services' directive (PSD2) and with no final date so far scheduled for them to be adopted by the Commission, the rapporteur appointed by the European Parliament, Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany) on Tuesday 8 August gave us his opinion on the main stumbling blocks surrounding this highly controversial level 2 text.
“The recent proposals the Commission have made point in the right direction and pick up some of the European Parliament's key concerns”, he told EUROPE, suggesting that the European Parliament could possibly get behind the Commission's position.
Readers may recall that industry and consumers have clashed over the "strong customer authentication'' plank (see EUROPE 11733), while the Commission and the European Banking Authority (EBA) are divided over the "common and secure communication" plank (see EUROPE 11839).
When asked about these differences of opinion, Ferber said that the EPA's initial draft was too “bank-driven”, which justifies the need for changes to the text to make the RTS more balanced. “The European Parliament's PSD2's negotiation team has always been very clear that we want to see a solution that encourages innovation and competition beyond the traditional bank-driven model payments”, he explained.
The main bone of contention between the Commission and the EBA, backed up by the banking industry and consumers, was whether third payment services providers would have direct access to the customer's bank account through the customer interface or indirect access through a dedicated interface, to be developed by the banks.
On this point, the MEP agrees with the Commission, arguing that the compromise it put forward - recommending access through a dedicated interface but offering a fallback option allowing the use of a customer interface if the dedicated interface is unavailable or offers lower-quality access - is a “prudent way forward, as banks would have a strong incentive to provide high-quality access to third-party payment providers”.
On the 'strong customer authentication' plan, the future rapporteur calls for a number of tweaks to the text. He feels that the current provisions are really only suitable for retail payments and could create disturbances in business-to-business transactions, which are frequently automated and tend to have lower rates of fraud. Changes are therefore necessary to “bring it more in line with real-world experience with regards to business-to-business transactions”, he said, adding that the “recent suggestions by the Commission seem quite sensible in this regard, too”.
No date has so far been set for future discussions at the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the European Parliament, Ferber confirmed on Wednesday 23 August. The timetable and format of proceedings will depend on when the RTS are adopted by the Commission, but also on their content; particular attention will be paid to whether the Parliament's concerns have been taken on board, he stressed. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)