The states EU members have agreed with the European Parliament about him Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and the Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3), with the aim of harmonizing payment services and implementing new rules that oblige both banking entities and other payment service providers to improve your customers’ protection against fraudas well as hidden fees and data leaks.
This is a set of rules that will make payment service providers responsible for covering customer losses if they do not put in place adequate fraud prevention mechanisms. In addition, it will force them to freeze and stop suspicious transactions.
The regulations will apply to payment services provided by banks, post offices and payment institutions, as well as to technical service providers that support payment services. In some cases, also to electronic communications providers and online platforms.
Payment service providers will have to verify that the name and unique identifier of the beneficiary of the transactions match, and in case of discrepancies, they will have to reject the payment order and inform the payer. These providers will also have to ensure strong customer authentication and perform a risk assessment.
If a fraudster initiates or modifies a transaction, it will be considered an unauthorized transaction, and the payment service provider will be responsible for the entire fraudulent amount. In addition, the provider receiving the payments will have to freeze any transaction that is suspicious.
To protect customers from phishing fraud, where a fraudster impersonates an employee of the payment service provider and tricks the customer into approving a payment, the provider will have to refund the full amount, provided the customer reports the fraud to the police and informs their payment service provider.
Online platforms will be liable to payment service providers who have refunded defrauded customers if they are informed of fraudulent content on their platform and fail to remove it, reinforcing the Digital Services Act.
Financial services advertisers will have to demonstrate to large online platforms and search engines that they are legally authorized, or officially exempt, in the country in which they want to offer services, or in which they are advertising on behalf of someone who is doing so. Customers will need to be informed of all fees, such as ATM cash withdrawal or currency conversion fees, before initiating a payment.
In addition, payment services will have to guarantee better access to cash in rural and remote areas, for which retail stores will be able to offer cash withdrawals up to a maximum of 150 euros and a minimum of 100, without the customer having to Buy anything.
Payment entities and services will have to ensure access to human-provided customer service and not limit it to chatbotsand it will be mandatory for countries in the region to allocate public resources to inform and educate the population on how they can avoid fraud. Of course, the agreement that the EU countries and the European Parliament have reached will have to be formally adopted by both the latter and the Council, before coming into force.
