The European Payment Services Directive (PSD2) complements European Union (EU) rules to enable new players and existing services, the development of payment instruments and access to payment accounts.

The first Payment Services Directive (PSD1) was adopted in 2007. This legislation provides the legal basis for a single EU payments market, with the goal of establishing safer and more innovative payment services across the EU. The goal was to make cross-border payments as easy, efficient and secure as “national” payments within a member state.

It provided the emergence of economies of scale and helped the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) in place. The Commission has proposed revising PSD1 to modernize it to take account of new types of payment services, such as payment initiation service providers.

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) from 2015 updates and complements the EU rules established by the Payment Services Directive (PSD1). Its main objectives are as follows:

• Contribute to a more integrated and efficient European payments market
• To improve the level playing field for payment service providers (including new players)
• Make payments more secure
• Protect consumers
• PSD2 extends the scope of PSD1 by covering new services and actors as well as extending the scope of existing services (payment instruments issued by payment service providers that do not manage the payment service user’s account) by allowing their access to payment accounts.