3 12 December 2009

News:

The US Department of Treasury will be able to access, from February 2010, financial data held in the EU in order to combat terrorism, under an agreement (16110/09) the EU Council reached with the US on 30 November 2009.

Almost a third of EU Member States are late in the implementation of the new Payments Services Directive (PSD), which was due to come into force in all 27 Member States by 1 November 2009.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is set to issue licences for non-financial institutions that offer online payment services to the country's consumers. The move is likely to increase competition in China's e-payment sector and will regulate e-payment platforms ­ financial and non-financial payment service providers.

Features:

1 November 2009 was the deadline for EU Member States to implement the Payment Services Directive (PSD) into their national law. For many financial institutions involved with payments this was the culmination of months of work in analysing the impact of the PSD on their businesses and amending systems and procedures as well as customer documentation to ensure compliance with the PSD. For those businesses operating in several Member States, the challenges with compliance with the PSD were multiplied in trying to determine how different Member States were to implement the PSD.

Bank overdraft charges have been a sensitive topic with UK bank customers, who were hoping for a 'fair' and understanding decision when the case was recently brought in front of the UK Supreme Court. Suzanne MacDonald, a Partner at TLT Solicitors, examines the decision and discusses its impact on UK consumers and banks.

Despite cards and e-payments becoming attractive for consumers in Germany, cash is still the predominant form of payment. The implementation of the Single Euro Payments Area, which harmonised direct debits and credit transfers in Europe, could potentially have an impact on this situation. Nadine Knaust, of the Department of Payment and Settlement Systems at the German Central Bank ­ the Deutsche Bundesbank ­ examines German consumers' payment behaviour.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published its final Policy Statement on how financial institutions must verify their compliance with the FSA's new Single Customer View rules. Estimates suggest that this could cost the industry over one billion pounds to implement. John Worthy, a Partner at Denton Wilde Sapte's Technology Group, reviews what the rules mean, what issues they raise and whether there is good news for financial institutions.

Countries outside Europe have understood the potential mobile payments have in developing commercial opportunities. Dag-Inge Flatraaker, Chairman of the European Payments Council's Mobile Channel Group, discusses why the EU could benefit from implementing a strong m-payment strategy in order to open up new business opportunities for European companies.

Australia is being introduced to a new form of payment: the contactless payment. Ruth Neal and Stephen Cavanagh, from Blake Dawson, discuss what the advantages and disadvantges of contactless payments are and how Australian legislation is addressing them.

The speed at which identity theft fraud is growing in the US triggered the creation of security breach notification legislation, both at federal and state level. Joan Antokol, a Partner at Baker & Daniels, explains how Europe can learn from the US experience at a time where the EU institutions and Member States are increasingly discussing data breach legislation.