If you haven’t been following what has been going on with PSD2, you may want to read this article in Finextra. It provides and overview of how financial data at European banks will be required to be shared, helping third parties to take the banks’ customers away from them. PSD2 is briefly explained as follows:
The revised Payment Services Directive is designed to create a more level playing field for third party payment processors (TPPs) by making banks in Europe offer application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide access to account information to third parties.
PwC says that the move will be a catalyst for disruption and strategic renewal, setting the stage for open banking in Europe but, inevitably, it is causing nervousness among bankers.
As you can imagine, not all are thrilled about that prospect:
The firm (PwC) quizzed senior execs at 30 major banks in eight European countries, finding that 88% think that PSD2 will affect their business, with 68% saying that they will be weakened as a result of the directive. About two thirds say that they are concerned about losing control of their customer interface and more than half think that there will be a risk of liability problems.
With PSD2’s mandates set to take effect in 2018, PwC concludes: “The only truly relevant question for European banks at this juncture is whether they will choose to lead and shape the future of open banking or be reduced to regulation-bound providers of commodity services to other, more visionary companies.”
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Group
Read the full story here