The Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) is a supplementary directive designed to complement the Revised Payment Service Directives (PSD2), eIDAS and any other such cases where Strong Customer Authentication is required. 

The Revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) is nothing short of revolutionary when it comes to the retail payment services industry in Europe. In fact, many of the innovative new products and services that PSD2 will indirectly create are likely to percolate to every sector of the economy.

A major challenge faced by the EU in the creation of a Digital Single Market is finding the right balance between processes that can be harmonized and standardized and those that need to remain flexible to cater to the demands of the various Member States. It is clear that eIDAS has been designed not only keeping this mind, but actually by taking it as the fundamental guiding principle during its creation.

2019 has set the stage for the next round of the match-up between Banks on one side and FinTech [1], BigTech and other challengers on the other. Come September, the requirements for Strong Customer Authentication will come into play and the race is on to get a head start. Some banks are indeed dragging their feet and just trying to do the bare minimum to be compliant. While others are more active and looking to one-up the disruptors while they are ahead.

PSD2 is being touted as the biggest game changer to ever hit the payments industry in Europe. And not without good reason. PSD2 mandates banks to share customer account data with third parties (ones authorised by the customer), so that they can offer services to the customers while using the bank’s core systems as a backend. It gives the customer more control over her data and more options to choose from various service providers. 

FinTechs aim to bring the data, tech and UX (user experience) centric approach of technology firms into the mainstream financial services sector. Banks are no strangers to voluminous data, but technology firms have succeeded by using that data to spot patterns and predict customer behavior in a way that has given them market dominance. By using similar principles and tailoring their product offerings accordingly, FinTech firms have successfully created a sub-niche for themselves in the payments industry.

With eIDAS, the European Commission has provided a powerful yet flexible toolset for developers, consultants and companies to build tools to cater to their specific needs. Each sector of the economy, right from financial services to retail or logistics, has a unique set of requirements but eventually they all can create helpful solutions using the eIDAS apparatus. In this series, we look at some sector specific case studies on how companies can leverage the new and more powerful tools that have been made available to them.

September 2019 will usher in a new paradigm in terms of online payment security and trust. September is the month when the requirements for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) under the Revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) will go live in the European Economic Area. Most payment processors and service providers are already working on implementing the same as the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for Strong Customer Authentication were defined and adopted in 2017 itself.

For many banks, Trade Finance is a sizeable contributor to both their Fee and (NII) Net Interest Incomes. From simple products like Letters of Credits and SBLCs, to complex Structured Trade Finance products – banks play a key role in greasing the cogs of the international trade machine. The reason these products exist is two-fold. Firstly, it is about financial leverage in the form of short-term working capital. But more than that – it is about creating trust.