Nina Stoyanova: Forthcoming new developments in the area of
payment services and digitalisation
Publication by Ms Nina Stoyanova, Deputy Governor and Head of the Banking Department
of the Bulgarian National Bank, in the Quarterly Bulletin of the Association of Banks in
Bulgaria, issue 65, January 2021.
Digital technologies have changed the financial services provision business, and the
payment sector is the leader in this trend. The speed of development of innovations and the
scale of technological changes in it require concrete and targeted effort. The pending strategic
projects and directions of development of the European payment infrastructure in the short
term, as presented in the digital finance package of the European Commission of November
20201, are related to the development of instant payments, digitalisation of financial services
and support of secure, profitable and interoperable payment solutions within the single
market.
1. Forthcoming review of the Second Payment Services Directive
In 2021, there will be a review of the Second Payment Services Directive2 (PSD2)
adopted in 2015 and transposed in the national legislation at the beginning of 2018 with the
new Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems. An analysis of the results of the
directive's implementation is expected to cover the following
areas:
- Updating the requirements to technical solutions used by payment services providers
for strong customer authentication, which are to ensure high level of security to customers,
while being convenient and user-friendly. Emphasis will be placed on the so-called
'nontransmittable' elements, such as biometrics. This presupposes gradual decrease in the use of
elements with lower degree of security, such as static passwords, and limiting the use of older
technologies and communication channels that are prone to attacks (such as SMS text
messages);
- Prevention of new types of fraud, particularly in the context of instant payments, as
strengthening payer's protection and regulating a
well as chargeback procedure in specific
cases (e.g. an error), which would make instant payments come close to card transactions;
- Review of the possible exceptions from applying strong customer authentication,
such as contactless card payments, also exploring the possibilities for introduction of an
individual limit set by the customer, for which no PIN entry is required;
'social engineering' or 'targeted
- Potential measures to reduce the risk of fraud due to
phishing', with a possible requirement for a match between the names of the payee to the
payment transaction and the account holder, and the implementation of technological
solutions for validation of the e-mail correspondence sender;
- Possibility for additional standardisation in terms of the information provided to
users in their account statements, particularly for card payments. The sophisticated business
models using multiple intermediaries result in users'
confusion, e.g. where the name of a
account statement does not coincide with the merchant's trademark and
merchant from the
thus hinders the identification of unauthorised payment transactions;
- Unifying the regulatory regime applicable to electronic money institutions and
payment institutions, by repealing the Electronic Money Directive3, and including issuance of
electronic money as a new type of a payment service;
- Standardisation of the application programming interfaces (APIs) used by the
industry. Regulation of the concept of the so-called 'open finances'- access to financial and
non-financial institutions to a broad range of financial information regarding the customers
with the latter's consent with a view
the provision of innovative services is expected to be
building on the experience gained in the implementation of 'open
proposed by mid-2022
banking';
- Review of the services falling within the remit of the Directive. Presently, PSD2 does
not cover services provided by 'technical services
providers', who support the provision of
payment services without coming into possession of the funds. Due to the growing
dependence of the provision of payment services on the provision of outsourced ancillary
services by subcontractors that are currently non-regulated entities, some of these services and
their providers may possibly be included in the scope of the Directive and become subject of
supervision;
- In addition to the review of PSD2, a review will also be carried out of the Settlement
Finality Directive4, and assessment will be made if payment institutions and electronic money
institutions should be eligible for direct participation in designated payments systems, subject
to certain conditions and risk mitigating measures.
2. General trends in payment digitalisation
Amendments to the legislation are an important prerequisite for the quick take-up of
innovations in the market, but no less contribution to it have the standardisation activities
pursued by the industry itself. Main developments, trends and technologies in the payment
area, as well as the required regulatory activities, will cover:
- Standardisation and achievement of interoperability between end-user applications
used for payment transactions, including standardisation of the QR codes used in Europe;
- Expanding the access to the necessary technical infrastructure for payment execution
-
e.g. to NFC chips in mobile phones and to the kernels for contactless payments in POS
terminals, thus facilitating contactless payments with cards issued within national card
schemes in the EU Member States;
- Encouraging the use of electronic identity and solutions based on trust services,
improvement of electronic identification and trust services with a view to meeting the
requirements for strong customer authentication and other regulatory requirements;
- Improved acceptance of digital payments by both the public and private sector,
including by legislative amendments in 2022, if needed;
- Standardisation of additional functionalities by establishing special SEPA schemes
such as the services
aimed at greater convenience in initiating instant payments,
'request-topay', payment by mobile phone number (proxy look-up), electronic invoice and electronic
receipt, etc.;
- Ensuring the full potential of the SEPA project and the strict application of the
requirements of Regulation (EU) 260/20125, including the requirements against IBAN
discrimination (inability to initiate international payment transactions) in the execution of
direct debits;
- Assessing the possibility for Western Balkan countries to join SEPA, thus deepening
their convergence with the EU;
- More comprehensive implementation of global international standards, such as ISO
20022, which facilitate the inclusion of richer data in the payment messages by the end of
2022 at the latest.
3. Forthcoming developments in the field of immediate payments
Instant credit transfers are the basis on which pan-European payment solutions are
expected to be built. Combined with the development of mobile technologies, instant
payments have the potential to create affordable, convenient and secure payment solutions in
both physical stores and the Internet, with funds being available to the recipient within
seconds. The ambition is to complete the full introduction of instant payments in the European
Union by the end of 2021. The following steps are needed to achieve this goal:
- Assess the need for mandatory adherence to the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme
in euro (SCT Inst.) by the end of 2021 and determining the criteria according to which
payment service providers will be subject by this obligation;
- Assess whether to adopt a legislative prohibition on charging instant payments higher
than standard credit transfers;
- Ensuring cross-border connectivity and interoperability of payment systems for
instant payments in euro through the TIPS service of the ECB-operated TARGET 2 payment
system. All payment service providers that have joined the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer
scheme (SCT Inst.) and are reachable in TARGET 2, should be reachable either as a
participant or as an reachable party (i.e., through another payment service provider that is a
participant) and in the TARGET 2 instant payment service TIPS by the end of 2021;
- Developing cross-currency instant payments in the European Union, which will be
ensured by the inclusion of currencies other than the euro in the TARGET 2 service for
instant payments - TIPS, as was the case with the Swedish krona in 2020;
- Encouraging the establishment of links between payment systems processing instant
payments in the European Union and those of third countries offering the same service,
provided that the standards for fraud prevention, money laundering, etc. are met.
4. Further steps to digitise financial services in the EU
The further development of digitisation will continue to be among the main priorities,
and the following measures are expected to be taken in order to accelerate these processes and
reach their full potential at European level:
4.1. Eliminate the fragmentation of the digital single market by:
- Legislative changes aimed at creating opportunities for interoperable use of digital
identity throughout the European Union. This will allow easy of new customers
'onboarding'
entirely online, in full compliance with the requirements for combatting money laundering
and terrorist financing;
- Facilitating cross-border provision of financial services, including by introduction of a
harmonised regime for new activities such as crowdfunding, credit intermediation, and
cryptocurrency services;
4.2. Adaptation of EU legislation to facilitate digital innovation:
- Regulation of activities with cryptocurrencies and financial instruments based on
tokens by introducing a comprehensive regulatory framework by 2024, allowing the
implementation in the financial service sector of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and
cryptocurrencies, taking into account the related risks;
- Promoting cooperation and use of cloud computing infrastructure, including through
the development of a legislative framework for the supervision of information and
communication technology (ICT) providers for the financial sector;
- Promoting the use of artificial intelligence tools in the financial services sector;
- Adherence to the principle of technology neutrality of legislation, combined with the
issuance of interpretative guidelines on how existing legislation on financial services should
be applied to new technologies in order to reduce legal uncertainty.
-
4.3. Promoting innovation based on financial data by creating a common space
for financial data
- Facilitating digital access to legally required financial information disclosed by
financial institutions through standardised and machine-readable formats;
- Promoting innovative computer technologies to facilitate reporting and supervision
(so-called reg-tech and sup-tech);
- Encourage data sharing between companies in the financial services sector inside and
outside the EU ('open finance').
4.4. Meeting the challenges and risks related to the implementation of digital
technologies:
- Keeping financial stability, protecting investors and consumers on the principle of
'same business, same risks, same rules', regulating the business of the big tech corporations
involved in provision of financial services;
-
- Protecting consumers and the public interest adapting the rules of consumer
protection and personal data protection to digital financial services, ensuring the effectiveness
of and making the legislation on money laundering, financing of terrorism, and tax avoidance
fit for the digital age;
- Enhancing the digital operational resilience.
5. Legislative proposals
As part of the Digital finance package, the European Commission published proposals
for the development of three regulations:
5.1. Proposal for a Regulation on digital operational resilience for the financial
sector6
The Regulation contains the following basic concepts:
- introducing requirements for the management by financial entities of the ICT-related
risks and for the reporting to the competent authorities of major ICT-related incidents and
digital operational resilience testing;
- sharing information on cyber threats and vulnerabilities;
- prescribing measures for the sound management by financial entities of the risk related
to ICT third-party service providers;
- introducing requirements for the contractual arrangements between ICT third-party
service providers and financial entities;
- establishing an oversight framework for critical ICT third-party providers when
providing services to financial entities.
5.2. Proposal for a Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets7
The Regulation defines the notion 'crypto-asset'8 and lists the main types of crypto-
assets, distinguishing between three sub-categories of crypto-assets:
- Asset-referenced tokens9. Such tokens may be offered to the public only by credit
institutions authorised to operate in the EU or by entities which hold the authorisation referred
to in the Regulation. However, issuers should always draw up and publish a crypto-asset
-
white paper a special information document which must comply with mandatory content
and form requirements. This Regulation imposes an obligation on issuers of asset-referenced
tokens to constitute and maintain a reserve of assets backing those tokens at all times,
including rules for the composition of the reserve assets, the management and allocation and
investment of assets,
- E-money tokens10. They may be issued only by authorised credit institutions or
electronic money institutions, again after publishing a 'white paper' and in keeping with some
business-specific requirements.
- 'standard tokens' do not fall under any of the above categories. The only requirement
for these to be offered to the public is that the issuer must be established as a legal entity in
the European Union and must have published a crypto-asset white paper.
This Regulation defines a new group of financial institutions, different from issuers of
which are called This new group of financial entities
tokens, 'crypto-asset service providers'.
will be subject to authorisation, and, depending on the scope of their authorisation, these
providers will be able to provide the following ancillary services:
- the custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of third parties;
- the operation of a trading platform for crypto-assets;
- the exchange of crypto-assets for fiat currency that is legal tender;
- the exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets;
- the execution of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of third parties and placing of
crypto-assets;
- the reception and transmission of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of third parties;
- providing advice on crypto-assets.
If a crypto-asset service provider needs the execution of payment transactions, that
crypto-asset service provider itself must have authorisation to provide payment services or it
must use a third party authorised to provide payment services.
The Regulation introduces stricter supervisory requirements, including direct
supervision by the European Banking Authority, for the issuers of so-called 'significant
tokens' - tokens the total value of which exceeds a certain threshold.
The Regulation puts in place rules and requirements to prevent market abuse involving
crypto-assets, such as the obligation for disclosing inside information and conditions for
delaying disclosure of inside information; prohibitions on insider dealing, on unlawful
disclosure of inside information and on market manipulation.
5.3. Proposal for a Regulation on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based
on distributed ledger technology (DLT)11.
This Regulation puts in place requirements for multilateral trading facilities and
securities settlement systems which use the distributed ledger technology (DLT) ('market
infrastructures based on
DLT') and have received specific permissions granting one or several
exemptions from certain provisions of Directive 2014/65/EU12 and Regulation (EU) No
909/201413. Only an entity authorised under Directive 2014/65/EU or an entity authorised
under Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 as a central securities depository may apply for
permission to establish a DLT market infrastructure.
The Regulation provides that the new regime may only be applied to shares, the issuer
of which has a market capitalisation or a tentative market capitalisation of less than EUR 200
million; or convertible bonds, covered bonds, corporate bonds, other public bonds and other
bonds, with an issuance size of less than EUR 500 million. Sovereign bonds are explicitly
excluded from the scope of this Regulation.