.svg)
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has released new clarifications regarding two aspects of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), addressing transaction fees' accessibility and the availability of payee-initiated transactions through dedicated application programming interfaces (APIs).
The regulatory agency responded to questions on payment initiation service providers' (PISPs) access to charges applied by account servicing payment services providers (ASPSPs) via the dedicated interface and on handling payee-initiated transactions with irregular periods or variable amounts in Q&As published on June 28.
One query to the EBA questioned whether ASPSPs must make transaction fees accessible to PISPs via dedicated interfaces.
“A certain ASPSP has decided to not make information concerning the amount of charges for the payment transaction payable by the payer accessible for PISPs via the ASPSP’s dedicated interface,” the submission says.
However, the submitter continues that information is available to the payment service user (PSU) if the PSU directly initiates a transaction with the ASPSP.
“The ASPSP has stated that it is not necessary to provide the information concerning payable charges to the PISP as the information is shown directly to the PSU on the ASPSP’s redirection pages.”
Article 66(4)(b) of PSD2 mandates that ASPSPs provide PISPs with all information regarding the initiation and execution of payment transactions that is accessible to PSUs directly initiating transactions.
Additionally, Article 36(1)(b) of the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) (EU) 2018/389 specifies that ASPSPs must offer PISPs the same information on transaction initiation and execution available to PSUs.
In its response, the EBA clarified that ASPSPs must share information about transaction fees with PISPs, stating that this information is essential for PISPs to inform PSUs of the full transaction costs and for purposes such as reconciliation, fraud prevention and refunding.
However, the Q&A response emphasised that although ASPSPs are required to provide details on transaction initiation and execution, they are not obliged to disclose transaction fees to PISPs before a transaction is initiated through the dedicated interface.
A second clarification addressed whether payee-initiated account transactions available in ASPSPs' online banking channels must also be accessible through PSD2 APIs.
This question arose due to inconsistencies whereby some ASPSPs offer these transactions as packaged products in their online banking platforms but do not extend this functionality to PSD2 APIs.
Relevant definitions and articles clarify this issue. Article 4(15) of PSD2 defines payment initiation services (PISs) as services to initiate a payment order at the request of the PSU.
Article 66(1) of PSD2 establishes the payer's right to use PISs, provided the payment account is accessible online.
The EBA highlighted that PSD2 does not guarantee payees the right to use PISs for initiating transactions, as it focuses primarily on the rights of payers.
Consequently, although ASPSPs can offer payee-initiated transactions through their online banking channels, there is no regulatory obligation for these services to be made available via PSD2 APIs to third-party providers.
The decision emphasised that PSD2’s scope, established in 2015, did not anticipate the current developments in payment initiation services and therefore does not extend to guaranteeing these rights for payees.
