PSD and SEPA. Designing the Way Forward for European Payments

The Payment Services Directive (PSD) was published in late 2007, constituting the legal basis for the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). The industry initiative launched on 28 January 2008 is aiming at replacing fragmented national markets for payment services with one integrated system.
While deadlines both for the transposition of the PSD into national law and the full availability for SEPA standards are set, many other questions lack clear answers and need to be addressed accordingly. Given the numerous directives and different regulations affecting payment services providers, the partial duplication and and interlinkages between the various provisions are prone to create a legislative labyrinth. What is the scope of the new directive? To what extent will business models have to be reviewed? Will consumers be sufficiently protected? What standards for the various SEPA schemes will be have to be implemented? How are (smaller) banks with little cross-border activities affected? Who will benefit?

Due to the high importance of these issues, the European Credit Research Institute has commissioned two papers, which formed the basis of the discussion at the workshop. Prof. Dr. Maria Chiara Malaguti focused and elaborated on the legal implications arising from the adoption of the PSD, and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bott considered the requirements for new business models in SEPA.

After one year of work on the implementation of the PSD and with SEPA soon to celebrate its first anniversary, the workshop also aimed at assessing what has been achieved and - more importantly at this critical state - where further obstacles lay.

In addition to the two professors, ECRI welcomed Marc Temmerman (Executive Vice President of Visa Europe), Ceu Perreira (European Commission, DG MARKT), Heiko Schmiedel (European Central Bank), Ruth Wandhöfer (Citi Global Transation Services) and Christian Westerhaus (Managing Director, Deutsche Bank).

The seminar, co-sponsored by Visa Europe, took place at CEPS premises on 5 November 2008 from 12.15 to 17.15.

The two ECRI Research Reports by Ms Malaguti and Mr Bott can be downloaded (for free) at the following links:

The Payment Services Directive: Pitfalls between the Acquis Communautaire and National Implementation, Maria Chiara Malaguti.

The Single Euro Payments Area: New Alliances Required to Tip the Market, Jürgen Bott.