Week Ending 29 October 2020
27 October 2020: The European Central Bank (ECB) has published for consultation its draft oversight framework for electronic payment instruments, schemes and arrangements (PISA). Comments are requested by 31 December 2020 on three draft documents — the oversight framework, assessment methodology and exemption policy. The draft oversight framework extends to all relevant actors in the payments market, including big tech firms.
26 October 2020: The European Payments Council (EPC) has published v5 (dated April 2020) of the evaluation criteria it will use to determine whether a community of banks or financial institutions from a non-EEA country or territory which is not yet within the geographical scope of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) schemes (as set out in EPC409–09) could be considered eligible to participate in those SEPA schemes.
22 October 2020: The Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) has responded to the HM Treasury (HMT) call for evidence on its Payments Landscape Review of July 2020. The FMLC urged HMT to consider privacy risks posed by distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based innovation in payment systems. The FMLC also highlighted that broader payments network activities may currently fall outside the scope of regulated payment services and systems activities, and asked HMT to consider widening the scope of the current regulated activities so they also cover payment network administrators.
