On the 22nd of September 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA) launched a consultation on its draft guidelines on the criteria competent authorities should consider when stipulating the minimum monetary amount of the professional indemnity insurance (PII) or comparable guarantee for payment initiation and account information service providers under the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2).

The PSD2, entered into force on the 12th of January 2016 and will be implemented in all EU member states by the 13th of January 2018.

With a world economy that more and more turns around online payments, the revised Payment Services Directive extends its scope to new players that (a) can initiate payment transactions and transfer money from an account held by another service provider (identified as Payment Initiation Service Providers – PISPs) and (b) can connect to bank accounts and retrieve information from them to provide consolidated information on one or more payment accounts (identified as Account Information Service Providers – AISPs).

Under the revised directive such new players are entitled to access customers’ bank accounts and banks are obliged to open up access to their customer accounts.

In order to protect customers’ bank accounts from unauthorised access the PSD2 set up new customer authentication and secure communication requirements.

All payment services providers (PSPs) will be required to use strong customer authentication when a payer:

1. accesses its payment account online;
2. initiates an electronic payment transaction;
3. carries out any action through a remote channel which may imply a risk of payment fraud or other abuses.

AISPs and PISPs, as well as payment institutions will be liable for unauthorised payments, under certain circumstances, and will need to hold a professional indemnity insurance or comparable guarantee of a minimum statutory amount to cover such liability. The EBA issued guidelines on the criteria that national competent authorities should adopt to set the minimum insurance cover for the registration of such new payment service providers.

Comments on this Consultation Paper are to be submitted by all interested parties within the 30th November 2016.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you need any assistance in submitting your response or any further clarification on this consultation.

Contacts:

Marina Mirabella
Senior Partner

Vito Vittore
Senior Partner

Luigi Bonifacio
Associate