Opinion

European Council and Parliament reach provisional agreement on EU Payments Package

European Council and Parliament reach provisional agreement on EU Payments Package

Earlier today, the Council of the European Union (EU) and European Parliament announced a provisional political agreement on the EU payments package. While the final texts of the third Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the Payment Services Regulation (PSR) are not yet available, press releases indicate that negotiations centered on three key areas: fraud prevention, transparency, and open banking.

Regarding fraud prevention, the new framework will introduce obligations for payment service providers (PSPs) to share fraud-related information, verify IBAN details against account holder names before executing transactions, apply strong customer authentication in additional scenarios and offer spending limits. Non-compliance will trigger PSP liability, including in cases of spoofing where fraudsters impersonate PSP employees. Online platforms will also face liability if they fail to remove fraudulent content that results in payment fraud, and advisers offering financial services via such platforms will have to demonstrate appropriate licensing.

Regarding transparency, customers will have to receive additional pre-payment information, including on currency conversion charges. 

Finally, to improve competition, access to payment account data will be further facilitated for open banking providers. In addition, PSPs will be required to offer customers a dashboard to monitor and manage these third-party data access permissions.

Formal adoption will follow finalisation of separate technical discussions on the texts of the PSD3 and the PSR, with exact implementation timelines yet to be confirmed.

For more details, see the official press releases from the Council of the EU and European Parliament.

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