The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a letter from its Chairman, Andrea Enria, to Olivier Guersent, European Commission (Commission) Director-General, DG FISMA, on the status of the regulatory technical standards (RTS) on strong customer authentication and common and secure communication under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

In his letter, Mr Enria welcomes the timely adoption of the RTS by the Commission on 27 November 2017. However, he notes that the adopted RTS contain significant changes that were neither in the final draft RTS that the EBA submitted on 27 February 2017, nor in the amendments that the Commission proposed to the EBA in their letter of 24 May 2017 or in the formal opinion containing revised RTS that the EBA submitted on 26 June 2017.

Mr Enria argues that the EBA should have been granted the opportunity to provide its opinion on the ‘new’ changes applied and adopted by the Commission in the 27 November 2017 version of the RTS. He adds that the omission of a formal consultation was not in line with the due process set out in Regulation (EU) No. 1093/2010.

Mr Enria then discusses some of the issues relating to the new changes. In terms of substance, Mr Enria points to discussions that the EBA Standing Committee had with Member State competent authorities which highlighted a concern that the new changes may impose significant additional administrative and operational burdens on payment services providers as well as the competent authorities themselves. Mr Enria also states that in places the new changes leave significant room for interpretation, and increase the risk of an unlevel playing field.

The letter concludes  by welcoming the adoption of the RTS but warning that there may need to be further efforts to ensure consistent interpretation and application of some provisions.

View EBA letter to European Commission on RTS on strong customer authentication under PSD2, 26 January 2018