The Payment Services Directive, PSD 2
PSD 2 (the Payment Services Directive 2) is the EU's second Payment Services Directive and regulates accounts and payments for both companies and private persons. You can read here about the Payment Services Directive and how it affects you.
The Payment Services Directive in brief
The Payment Services Directive is a broad set of rules that covers several areas of accounts and payments. The biggest new feature is that you as a customer will be able to share your account information and make payments through so-called third party providers. This means that licensed companies have the opportunity to retrieve your account information from us and to make payments from your SEB account, under the condition that you have given your approval.
Secure standards
With the enactment of the Payment Services Directive, standardised ways for third party providers to operate in the payment services market were introduced, both with respect to administration of payments and account information. This means that we at SEB offer you as a customer the opportunity to use third party providers in a secure and standardised manner.
What is a third party provider?
A third party provider can, for example, be a company or a bank that offers payment or account information services. The third party provider's services use transaction accounts with other banks. For example, a third party provider may offer a company to pay invoices and view account information in another interface than our own.
To be able to offer these types of services, the third party provider must have a licence from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority or equivalent authority in an EU/EEA country.
The Payment Services Directive and private customers
To be able to use services from a third party provider, you must always give your approval. If you do not give your approval, the third party provider will not be able to retrieve your account information or make payments for you. Once you have approved the service, we will share your account information with the third party provider or make the payment requested by the third party provider. After we have shared your account information, we no longer have control over it or responsibility for how the information is used.
The Payment Services Directive and companies
Your company can share your account information and make payments via third party providers. Reach out to your SEB contact if you have any questions.
To be able to use the service, your company always needs to give its approval. As soon as your company has approved the services, we will share your company's account information with the third party provider. Thereafter SEB will no longer have responsibility for or control over how the information is used.
Questions and answers
An EU directive is a type of law directed at the EU's member countries. When a new directive is enacted, the member countries must adapt their laws according to the directive within a certain period of time. This is in contrast with an EU regulation, which directly has the force of law in all of the EU member countries.
The goal of the Payment Services Directive, PSD2, was to accelerate the pace of innovation, competition and security in the European account and payment services market. Payment Services Directive aimed to increase harmonisation of account and payment services within the EU.
Third party providers have the ability to retrieve customers' account information and make payments, provided that the customer has given its approval. In addition, the Payment Services Directive lays out requirements for:
- Fraud monitoring
- Faster handling of fraudulent and incorrect payments
Large parts of the Payment Services Directive took effect 2018. The requirement to give third party providers the ability to retrieve account information and execute payments took effect 2019. Currently a review of Payment Services Directive is under way, and is expected to be followed by Payment Services Regulation and PSD3.
To be a third party provider within the framework of the Payment Services Directive, a company must apply with and be approved by its local regulatory authority. In Sweden this is Finansinspektionen (the Financial Supervisory Authority).
To be approved, certain capital and insurance requirements must be met. If a company wants to do business in other EU countries than the one in which it was granted its licence, the company can apply for a licence through a simplified process with the national regulatory authority in that EU country.
No, you always need to give your approval for a company to gain access to your account information. Moreover, in order for you to be able to give your approval, the company must be approved by a European regulatory authority.
All companies that want to operate as a third party provider within the framework of the Payment Services Directive must first be approved by a regulatory authority in the EU/EEA. In Sweden this is authority is Finansinspektionen (the Financial Supervisory Authority).
This licence can then be used throughout the EU if the third party provider completes a simplified application with the regulatory authority in the country that it wants to operate in.
Only payments accounts are covered by the directive, such as "Privatkonto", "Företagskonto" and "Enkla sparkonto".