A group of fintech organisations has said the technical guidelines accompanying PSD2 are not aligned with the regulation's aims - and has asked the European Commission to amend them.

The group of 65 companies and associations operating across all EU Member States and at a global level in the financial services space have sent a manifesto to the European Commission, asking it to consider amending certain aspects of the current draft of regulatory & technical standards (RTS) for the amended Payment Services Directive (PSD2). PSD2 is due to come into effect in January 2018.

Calling themselves the 'Future of the European Fintech' the group of companies and associations stated: “We believe that the EBA’s RTS, not only do not reflect the principles laid down in PSD2, but are dis- torting them by banning a secure proven technology such as Direct Access via the bank’s existing – and well maintained – customer-facing online banking interface (sometimes derogatively referred to as screen scraping). We, therefore, urge policymakers to align the RTS with the PSD2 text, so that it no longer forecloses specific technologies, such as Direct Access, and preserves technology neut- rality in the payments space.”

While it welcomes some aspects of PSD2, the group also stated that: “We strongly believe that if some of the proposed standards are adopted, specifically those in relation to how fintechs communicate with banks on behalf of the consumer, they will have a severe adverse impact. They will have a negative impact on competition, they will jeopardise consumer control over their own financial data, and they will have a critical negative impact on the future trajectory of innovation in Europe. The proposed regulatory standards are inconsistent with PSD2 and will make fintechs technologically dependent on banks and therefore grant incumbents a gatekeeper role on the fintech sector.”

Read the full manifesto here.