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Changing your payments
By Jon Chertkow
The implementation of PSD2 heralds the arrival of the open banking era.
This has the potential to be the single most transformative change to payments and banking. It is often portrayed as a serious threat to existing business models but it also opens up significant opportunities for both banks and new entrants, including new business lines and new routes to market. It may also open up new opportunities and services for those who accept payments in their business.
With the EBA's Regulatory Technical Standards now finalised and in the process of being implemented, perhaps of most importance is how the market reacts to the changes. It is extremely rare for legislation to seek to disrupt markets and boost competition in the way that PSD2 has done. Whether it succeeds in revolutionising banking or merely tinkers with some niche practices around the edges will depend on how the market reacts.
What is clear is that banks will have to make access available to their payment accounts and that a number of Fintechs are interested in providing new services, piggybacking off bank infrastructure. What is less clear is whether there is a significant consumer demand for these types of services and whether businesses can develop sustainable business models to provide them.
