Birch Wealth Care

From now on, market operators can apply to DNB for a licence to provide new services under PSD2. More information on licence applications can be found on DNB’s website.

Draft licence applications.

Market operators could submit draft PSD2 licence applications to DNB from 6 July 2018 onwards. Twenty did so using the Digital Supervision Portal. Six of them submitted a draft licence application, and fourteen informed us they were planning to do so in the near future.

DNB and the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA) on 22 February 2019 signed a partnership protocol that should enable efficient and effective supervision of compliance with the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Under the protocol, DNB and the Dutch DPA exchange information that is relevant in exercising their supervisory tasks under PSD2. They will for example share information on licence applications by firms that process personal data, information on incidents such as data leaks, and other indicators identified at payment service providers. To the extent possible, the indicator, complaint or request cannot be traced back to the party that reported it.

Together with PSD2, various guidelines and regulatory technical standards (RTS) issued by the European Banking Authority (EBA) have entered into force in the Netherlands. For example, the EBA’s Guidelines on major incident reporting under PSD2 prescribe how payment service providers must report incidents. They should do so using the Digital Supervision Portal, unless it is explicitly indicated that they should do so in a different manner. An overview of these guidelines and RTS can be found on our Open Book on Supervision web pages.

EBA Guidelines on fraud reporting.

DNB has decided that the EBA’s Guidelines on fraud reporting under PSD2 will apply to Dutch payment service providers from 1 July 2019 onwards. These guidelines deal with regular statistical reports on fraud incidents in payment transactions of payment institutions, banks and exempted payment service providers. DNB has informed the EBA of its intention to comply with effect from 1 July 2019. In practice, this means that payment service providers must start reporting on the second half of 2019 in early 2020. The 1 July 2019 effective date is aimed at preventing a situation in which institutions must report on a period in which PSD2 did not apply in the Netherlands.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently issued a ruling on savings accounts under PSD1. In the case at issue, the ECJ ruled that savings accounts with a fixed contra account were not to be regarded as payment accounts. Seeing that the ECJ issued its ruling under PSD1, it is unclear how this will play out under PSD2, notably whether banks should provide account information and payment initiation service providers access to savings accounts with a fixed contra account. The Dutch Minister of Finance has stated that he wished to submit the question of what this means under PSD2 to the European Commission to ensure a level playing field.