On the 14^th January 2016, the MFSA issued a Circular to institutions offering account servicing, payment initiation and account information services as defined in the PSD2. In terms of the duly revised Payment Services Directive, payment initiation service providers (PISPs) and account information service providers (AISPs), when providing such services exclusively, do not hold client funds and, as such, it would be disproportionate to impose own funds requirements on these new market participants.

This notwithstanding, such institutions should be required to hold either professional indemnity insurance (PII) or a comparable guarantee with a view to ensuring that they are able to meet their liabilities in relation to their activities.

institutions should be required to hold either PII or a comparable guarantee with a view to ensuring that they are able to meet their liabilities in relation to their activities

Accordingly, the European Banking Authority (EBA) is in the process of developing Guidelines under PSD2 on the criteria to be used by Member States in order to establish the minimum monetary amount of PII or comparable guarantee to be held by PISPs and AISPs.

It is understood that a consultation process in this respect will be launched by the EBA over the course of summer 2016 with the final criteria expected to be published by January 2017. Thereafter, national regulatory authorities will determine the minimum monetary amount of PII or comparable guarantee to be applied in the respective national jurisdictions as of January 2018.

As part of a fact-finding initiative in connection with the preparation of consultation paper, the EBA has also circulated questionnaires in order to obtain the feedback and perspective of ASPSPs, PISPs and AISPs. Such feedback refers primarily to the interaction of ASPSPs with PISPs and AISPs and their experience with unauthorised payments and IT-risks as well as how these ASPSPs address such risks within their organisation.