National regulators delaying EU payments harmonisation

European banks are losing confidence in their ability to meet impending deadlines for new EU payments rules mandated by the Payment Services Directive, and are blaming the slowdown on failures in national regulation.

A survey conducted by PSE Consulting of 37 senior industry participants found that one in four think they are unlikely to be ready by November 2009.
Almost 70% of those questioned believed that the transposition of the legislation into national law would not be available until after Q3 2009, leaving precious little time for institutions to become compliant.
Although regulators are providing support in areas such as guidance notes and input to drafting, says PSE, only 20% of those questioned thought they would be given sufficient time to implement the PSD. In addition, almost half did not believe that their organisation had received clarification on key issues by the regulators.
Last week, the UK became only the first European nation to pass the PSD into national law, bringing certainty to a process that has been dogged by vested interest lobbying, intractable interchange disputes and ambiguity from the outset.
LI: There will be a separate update on PSD from IAMTN within the next week but this sets the scene. It shows that a lack of information is still apparent. Money transfer companies contributed to this survey and these comments reflect the views of a number of them. The message is - get as much information as you can and get ready to plan and act.