EU banks express confidence in meeting Payment Services Directive compliance
02 September 2009
Tier one banks in Europe have set aside as much as EUR20 million each to achieve compliance with the EU's PSD.
Finextra and Accenture surveyed nearly thirty EU banks, including nearly 20% of the top 100, to assess industry-views, core challenges to implementation and bank readiness for the PSD, which is being introduced to harmonise the EU's legal payments infrastructure.
EU bank respondents express confidence in their ability to meet the 1 November compliance deadline, with a vast majority (90%) saying they will be legally compliant on time and nearly three-quarters (72%) saying they expect to be fully compliant by November. Legal compliance with PSD is achievable without full implementation.
Compliance costs appear to vary dramatically, with PSD budgets ranging from less than €1 million to more than €20 million, according to the survey. IT changes account for about 30% of the scope of PSD programs, with changes to contract terms and conditions the next biggest component, followed by internal and external communication.
A vast majority (82%) of respondents consider PSD primarily as an opportunity to offer pan-European payments and banking, while only 14% and 7% of banks see it is an opportunity to acquire new corporate customers and new retail customers, respectively.
Nonetheless, Accenture believes that the move to a more efficient pan-European payments infrastructure will provide a stimulus to corporates to rationalise their EU banking relationships, indicating that customer-retention could become a key battleground in the post-PSD environment.
© finextra
