EU Payment Accounts Directive defines payment-sector compliance duties for consumer payment accounts offered by payment service providers.
TL;DR:
- Covers Consumer payment accounts offered by payment service providers.
- Use standardised fee terms; provide fee information and statements; support switching; offer basic accounts subject to lawful conditions.
- Provide prescribed consumer disclosures and information to national comparison mechanisms and competent authorities where required.
Summary
The directive deals with three obstacles consumers face in everyday banking: comparing account fees, switching providers and obtaining a basic payment account. It promotes standardised fee terminology, a fee information document before contracting and a statement of fees showing what the account has cost over time.
The switching framework organises cooperation between receiving and transferring providers for eligible account services. Access-to-basic-account provisions address consumers legally resident in the EU, subject to the directive's conditions and lawful refusal grounds. A basic account supports essential transactions; it does not create an unconditional right to credit or an overdraft.
Its focus is the consumer's ability to understand and use an account. Payment execution rules, deposit protection and AML checks continue to come from their own frameworks. Implementing the directive therefore involves product eligibility, comparable disclosures, operational transfer of payment arrangements and a process for assessing applications and refusals.
Keywords
- EU Payment Accounts Directive
- Payment Accounts Directive
- Directive 2014/92/EU
- EU Payment Accounts Directive summary
- EU Payment Accounts Directive requirements
- EU Payment Accounts Directive compliance
- European Union payment regulation
- European Union financial regulation
- European Union regulation
- European Parliament and Council of the European Union publication