Today PRETA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EBA CLEARING, announced the launch of a directory project to support payment service providers (PSPs) and third party providers (TPPs) in meeting the access-to-account requirements of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The aim of the project is to deliver a panEuropean directory providing relevant information on account-servicing PSPs (ASPSPs) and TPPs for access by the latter to payment accounts. 

PRETA’s initiative follows a call by the ERPB on 12th June 2017 for a “common, secure, resilient, reliable and up to date Directory Service on a pan-European level, which should be delivered by the market and should consist of shared information on AS-PSPs and TPPs.”

PRETA recognises that the PSD2 implementation process would benefit from collaborative action on a number of crucial practical elements needed for the PSD2compliant handling of access-to-account requirements. 

In this context, the intense debates within the industry over the past 18 months on the pre-requisites for a safe and efficient co-operation between AS-PSPs and TPPs (as payment initiation services providers) have clearly shown the need for an appropriate directory service. To respond to this need, PRETA started looking into the topic with interested banks a year ago and is now gearing up to engage in a development project based on the results of a consultation conducted among this potential user community. At present, an initial working group including 15 banks from 12 countries is discussing the technical requirements for a pan-European directory. 

“There is an obvious need for an operational directory to support both AS-PSPs and TPPs. TPPs will need a single point of reference to locate the interfaces of AS-PSPs, which in turn will require a single point of reference to identify TPPs authorised to access those interfaces,” said John Broxis, Managing Director of PRETA. “Beyond these key requirements to be tackled by such a directory, there are many possibilities for additional services aimed at reducing costs, improving security and reducing fragmentation.”  

“PRETA has been a forerunner for Open Banking, notably by developing the MyBank service suite, the pan-European e-authorisation solution that today counts 250 connected banks,” said Giorgio Ferrero, CEO of PRETA. “PRETA is an acknowledged industry leader on the PSD2 subject matter, contributing to key industry initiatives, such as the ERPB’s Working Group on Payment Initiation Services, the Berlin Group, the UK Open Banking PSD2 Liaison, the Euro Banking Association’s Open Banking Working Group and the Open Forum on Open Banking. With this expertise, we are well-positioned to engage in this pan-European directory project based on a collective approach.”  
PRETA intends to deliver its directory in close consultation with future users and relevant stakeholders.