As many as 25 banks in seven European countries have reached the first milestone for PSD2 compliance on time, via the PSD2 compliance solution and services from equensWorldline SE, European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and a subsidiary of Worldline.

As a result, these banks (including Credit Europe, Commerzbank, Crelan, Bank J. Van Breda & C°, vdk Bank, Europabank, Crédit Municipal, CPH Banque and Comdirect Bank AG) are among the first that have the required testing facilities ready in accordance with the timetable prescribed by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and corresponding National Competent Authorities (NCA).

Although these 25 banks met the first deadline in time, a recent survey shows that 41% of the other European banks failed to have their test facilities in place by the end of March. There is still time for them to catch up, as banks must have their payment system ready for usage by regulated third party providers (TPPs) by 14 September 2019.

Exemption request

According to Michael Steinbach, CEO of equensWorldline, it is important for banks to follow the required timeline, not only to drive innovation, but also in case a bank wants to request an exemption from the fallback mechanism. Exemption is granted when the dedicated interface meets specific criteria. equensWorldline supports banks with this exemption request, as well as the creation of testing facilities or a ‘sandbox’ environment, and documentation on the API’s in a very short timeframe.

equensWorldline also provides the end-to-end dedicated interfaces, including consent management and TPP verification which comply with PSD2-regulations and enable third-party providers to access customer account information in a correct, reliable and secure manner. Within the new context, payment service users are protected by the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements and must give their permission before their details are submitted or a payment is processed.

Besides that, equensWorldline has strong PSD2 expertise with a presence in established European PSD2 groups and thorough regulatory control to ensure the product is always up to date.

The next steps

Steinbach underlines that compliance is only the first step in the PSD2 process and that PSD2, specifically Access-to-Account, can also offer numerous opportunities. “It’s the first, yet a very important step, because once this foundation has been laid, banks and fintechs can start building innovative products with which they can attract customers.”

“Think about an application that can help retail customers with an up-to-date overview of their financial situation and provide an immediate and tailor-made loan”, Steinbach continues. “Or a service that helps corporate customers with the acceptance of account-based payments online and in store. Also in the area of cash management PSD2 can bring a vast improvement to corporates in managing their corporate funds efficiently and effectively. equensWorldline is geared to help banks not only with PSD2-compliancy, but also by taking the next steps in the development of new services and functionalities.”