Due to the growth of online shopping and online payments, the European Union enacted legislation in to protect consumers and merchants called the Payment Services Directive (PSD). The first PSD was adopted in 2007 with the intent of increasing competition in the payments industry across Europe. It was subsequently replaced by the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which came into force in 2016.  PSD2's key objectives were the creation of a more integrated European payments market with a level playing field for payment service providers. There was also a strong emphasis on secure payments and protecting consumers, e.g. with SCA (Strong Customer Authentication). PSD2 also introduced open banking by requiring standardized access to payment accounts via an API (application programming interface). This opened the doors for third parties to offer services to consumers, ranging from initiating payments to account and financial management services.