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21.December 2009 - 00:00
Transposition of the Payment Services Directive
Directive 2007/64/EC(1) of the European Parliament and the Council on payment services in the internal market was adopted on 13 November 2007.
The aim of the Payment Services Directive is to boost competition and promote harmonised practices in the EU area, as well as to speed up the transmission of payments.
In Finland the Payment Services Directive is being transposed by means of laws on payment institutions and services. These laws, based on a directive devised for the banking sector, are endangering the future of practical and much-used mobile phone services in Finland.
In Finland it is possible to use mobiles for many services, for example to purchase local travel tickets and receive them on one’s mobile phone, and to offer telecommunications services which enable the purchase of goods to be included in the price of the telecommunications service, so that is possible to obtain a vending machine product (e.g. a soft drink) by means of a phone call.
Certain authorities have also taken advantage of the opportunity of charging for mobile messaging for the use of their ancillary services (e.g. vehicle registration inquiries to the Finnish Vehicle Administration). These new applications are new services of benefit to the citizen which have arisen thanks to the development of the Information Society.
The transposition of the Payment Services Directive in Finland might require major changes in telecommunications companies’ systems and contracts. The authorities’ interpretation of transposition, whereby some advanced Information Society telecommunications services fall within the scope of the directive, risks placing telecommunications operators in a very tricky position: they would be covered by two sets of partially conflicting rules, and they would be subject to a number of changes to invoicing and other systems.
Does the Commission consider that, in the course of transposition at national level, telecommunications services could or should remain entirely outside the scope of the Payment Services Directive? Or should any transposition regarding certain telecommunications services take place in the context of legislation on messaging, thus making it possible to take better account of the specific features of the telecoms sector and avoid duplicating regulation?
(1) OJ L 319, 5.12.2007, p. 1.
21 December 2009
Answer given by Mr McCreevy on behalf of the Commission
Finland is one of the few Member States which has not implemented the Payment Services Directive (PSD)(1) on time (i.e. before 1 November 2009).
According to information provided to the Commission, the two government proposals implementing the PSD (the new Act on Payment Institutions transposing Title II provisions and the Act related to other provisions of the PSD) were submitted to the Finnish Parliament on 2 October 2009 and their full entry into force, once adopted, is not expected to take place before the first half of 2010.
The Commission does not share the position expressed by the Honourable Member that this directive has been ‘devised for the banking sector’. On the contrary, one of the main objectives of the PSD is to open the payment market to new providers, notably through the creation of a new category of payment service providers i.e. the payment institutions, which benefit from a specific legal and prudential environment.
Together with the recently adopted revised e-money Directive(2), the PSD offers a modern and suitable legal framework allowing all payment service providers, be they banks or non-banks such as telecom or Information Technology (IT) providers, to enter the payment market and develop innovative payment services (e.g. m-payments). Such services fall within the scope of the PSD and, given the full harmonisation nature of the directive, cannot be exempted at national level.
However, the directive has been carefully drafted to take full account of the specificities of some non-banking operators, such as telecommunication operators (see in particular point 7 of the PSD's Annex). However, in cases where the activity of the telecommunication operator goes beyond a mere payment transaction since the operator might add intrinsic value to the goods or services purchased which furthermore are delivered to and are to be used only through a digital device (e.g. mobile phones), the concrete payment transaction would not fall within the PSD in accordance with its Article 3(l).
Telecommunication operators providing payment services are, however, covered and accounted for in the directive and the Commission trusts that they will fully seize the opportunities that the directive offers to provide innovative and competitive payment services throughout the EU.
(1) Directive 2007/64/EC of Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market amending Directives 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 97/5/EC Text with EEA relevance, OJ L 319, 5.12.2007.
(2) Directive 2009/110/EC of Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions amending Directives 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 2000/46/EC Text with EEA relevance, OJ L 267, 10.10.2009.
Directive 2007/64/EC(1) of the European Parliament and the Council on payment services in the internal market was adopted on 13 November 2007.
The aim of the Payment Services Directive is to boost competition and promote harmonised practices in the EU area, as well as to speed up the transmission of payments.
In Finland the Payment Services Directive is being transposed by means of laws on payment institutions and services. These laws, based on a directive devised for the banking sector, are endangering the future of practical and much-used mobile phone services in Finland.
In Finland it is possible to use mobiles for many services, for example to purchase local travel tickets and receive them on one’s mobile phone, and to offer telecommunications services which enable the purchase of goods to be included in the price of the telecommunications service, so that is possible to obtain a vending machine product (e.g. a soft drink) by means of a phone call.
Certain authorities have also taken advantage of the opportunity of charging for mobile messaging for the use of their ancillary services (e.g. vehicle registration inquiries to the Finnish Vehicle Administration). These new applications are new services of benefit to the citizen which have arisen thanks to the development of the Information Society.
The transposition of the Payment Services Directive in Finland might require major changes in telecommunications companies’ systems and contracts. The authorities’ interpretation of transposition, whereby some advanced Information Society telecommunications services fall within the scope of the directive, risks placing telecommunications operators in a very tricky position: they would be covered by two sets of partially conflicting rules, and they would be subject to a number of changes to invoicing and other systems.
Does the Commission consider that, in the course of transposition at national level, telecommunications services could or should remain entirely outside the scope of the Payment Services Directive? Or should any transposition regarding certain telecommunications services take place in the context of legislation on messaging, thus making it possible to take better account of the specific features of the telecoms sector and avoid duplicating regulation?
(1) OJ L 319, 5.12.2007, p. 1.
21 December 2009
Answer given by Mr McCreevy on behalf of the Commission
Finland is one of the few Member States which has not implemented the Payment Services Directive (PSD)(1) on time (i.e. before 1 November 2009).
According to information provided to the Commission, the two government proposals implementing the PSD (the new Act on Payment Institutions transposing Title II provisions and the Act related to other provisions of the PSD) were submitted to the Finnish Parliament on 2 October 2009 and their full entry into force, once adopted, is not expected to take place before the first half of 2010.
The Commission does not share the position expressed by the Honourable Member that this directive has been ‘devised for the banking sector’. On the contrary, one of the main objectives of the PSD is to open the payment market to new providers, notably through the creation of a new category of payment service providers i.e. the payment institutions, which benefit from a specific legal and prudential environment.
Together with the recently adopted revised e-money Directive(2), the PSD offers a modern and suitable legal framework allowing all payment service providers, be they banks or non-banks such as telecom or Information Technology (IT) providers, to enter the payment market and develop innovative payment services (e.g. m-payments). Such services fall within the scope of the PSD and, given the full harmonisation nature of the directive, cannot be exempted at national level.
However, the directive has been carefully drafted to take full account of the specificities of some non-banking operators, such as telecommunication operators (see in particular point 7 of the PSD's Annex). However, in cases where the activity of the telecommunication operator goes beyond a mere payment transaction since the operator might add intrinsic value to the goods or services purchased which furthermore are delivered to and are to be used only through a digital device (e.g. mobile phones), the concrete payment transaction would not fall within the PSD in accordance with its Article 3(l).
Telecommunication operators providing payment services are, however, covered and accounted for in the directive and the Commission trusts that they will fully seize the opportunities that the directive offers to provide innovative and competitive payment services throughout the EU.
(1) Directive 2007/64/EC of Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market amending Directives 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 97/5/EC Text with EEA relevance, OJ L 319, 5.12.2007.
(2) Directive 2009/110/EC of Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions amending Directives 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 2000/46/EC Text with EEA relevance, OJ L 267, 10.10.2009.