The European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued a statement disagreeing with proposals for the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), which would treat payment card schemes and processing entities as if they were legally and structurally separate.

It was responding to six amendments put forward by the European Commission on 5 January 2017, including to restrict the ability for entities to have shared benefits and plan; not to allow card scheme and processing entities to share staff for the purpose of innovation; to prevent the practice of ‘revolving doors', and to review the rules around directorship holding in both entities.

The EBA stated that “several of these proposals might result in a disproportionate, difficult, and/or ambiguous application of the RTS for those payment card schemes and processing entities that are not legally separated, or that are organised in separate undertakings within the same group”.

Consultation on PSD2

The EBA also made progress towards a final version of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), by launching a public consultation on the complaints procedures related to overseeing compliance by payment service providers (PSPs) of PSD2.

The consultation, which runs until 16 May 2017, relates to the process of complaints that payment service users and other interested parties, including consumer associations, can submit to competent authorities with regard to PSPs' alleged infringements of the PSD2.

See the EBA's website for more information on either the EBA's statement on the IFR or its consultation of PSD2.