Commission acts to ensure implementation of EU rules on electronic money activities

26 April 2012

Belgium, Spain, France, Cyprus, Poland and Portugal have been asked to notify the European Commission within the next two months as to the measures they are taking to update their national legislation in conformity with the latest Directive on e-money.

The Directive aims at facilitating market entry, as well as at the taking up and pursuit of the business of electronic money issuance. These rules, including their prudential dimension, are tailored to the specificities of electronic money activities and markets (2009/110/EC). The deadline for implementing the rules in question was 30 April 2011.

Electronic money is a digital equivalent of cash, stored on an electronic device or remotely at a server. One common type of e-money is the 'electronic purse', where users store relatively small amounts of money on their payment card or other smart card, to use for making small payments. But e-money can also be stored on (and used via) mobile phones or in a payment account on the internet.

The Directive aims at European level to:

• enable new, innovative and secure electronic money services to be designed;
• provide market access to new companies;
• foster real and effective competition between all market participants.

The Directive focuses on modernising EU rules on electronic money, especially bringing the prudential regime for electronic money institutions, in line with the requirements for payment institutions in the Payment Services Directive (2007/64/EC).

Press release

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