WIREDGOV

The European Banking Authority has published draft guidelines for companies on how to become authorised under the PSD2.

The Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD2) will open up the field for non-bank providers to operate as payment institutions, electronic money institutions and account information service providers. To do so, they will have to be authorised by national regulators i.e. the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has now published draft guidelines on what information must be submitted when applying for such authorisation. It was given this task in the Directive itself. The draft document is split into three parts, since different information will be required according to the type of service applied for.

The sort of information required includes, for example:

• details on the applicant's programme of operations and its business plan; 
• measures taken for safeguarding payment service users' funds;
• the applicant's governance arrangements and internal control mechanisms;
• procedures to monitor, handle and follow up a security incident and security related customer complaints;
• the identity, and suitability, of persons responsible for the management of the payment institution.

The draft guidelines are open to comment until 3 February 2017 - all interested partied may comment.

The form through which to submit comments can be found here.

The EBA will also hold a public hearing on the draft guidelines on 12 December from 14.00-16.00 and registration is via the EBA website.