Following the publication by the European Banking Authority of an Opinion and draft Guidelines on Regulatory Technical Standards under the revised Payment Services Directive for strong customer authentication and common and secure communication, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement on its website. The RTS under PSD2 set out how third-party providers of account information and payment initiation services (TPPs) and account servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs) should interact and communicate securely to enable TPPs to provide their services to customers with the customer's consent. The Opinion relates to the implementation of the RTS and the draft Guidelines relate to the availability of an exemption for ASPSPs from a requirement to build a contingency access mechanism.

The FCA welcomes the EBA's Opinion and draft Guidelines and confirms that, assuming the Guidelines remain as drafted, it expects to comply with them. The FCA will be consulting in Summer 2018 on proposed changes to its rules and guidance to reflect the RTS, the Opinion and the draft Guidelines. The consultation will outline the proposed process and level of information that the FCA will require from firms to make an exemption assessment. The FCA raises a number of issues that ASPSPs and TPPs should be considering, along with some key points from the Opinion and draft Guidelines of which they should take note in advance of the consultation.

The FCA expects to be able to make exemption assessments from early 2019. The RTS will apply from September 14, 2019 and therefore the FCA will aim to respond to firms' exemption requests promptly.

View the FCA Statement.

View details of the EBA Opinion and draft Guidelines.