A new non-profit body, the European Third-Party Provider Association (ETPPA) has been launched by European fintechs to represent their interests on issues related to Europe’s second Payment Services Directive, aka PSD2.

The ETTPA formalises the two years-old Future of European Fintech (FoEF) coalition into an official non-profit third party provider (TPP) trade association.

Formed in February 2017, the FoEF was created to unite forces in requesting changes to the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) first draft of the PSD2 regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the provisions governing strong customer authentication and secure communication between TPPs and banks.

The FoEF contended that these interpreted PSD2 very much in favour of the banks and against the interests of fintechs and would jeopardise the business of TPPs in particular.

Several members of the FoEF attended on behalf of the interests of the TPP to the API Evaluation Group of the European Commission. FoEF was also invited to take the vacant post of Payment Initiation Services Provider (PISP) at the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB).

Continuing the work

The new ETPPA will continue to represent the interests of bank-independent TPPs as they jockey with banks over gaining access to customer accounts. Founding members include French banking app Bankin’, Spain’s Eurobits Technologies, the UK’s PPRO Group, Germany’s Sofort and Sweden’s Trustly.

Ralf Ohlhausen, executive advisor at PPRO commented: “We are delighted to strengthen our position with the launch of the ETPPA, and we encourage all bank-independent TPPs and fintechs with a significant interest in the PSD2 arena to join us, to bolster our efforts in supporting TPP interests vis-à-vis banks, as well as national and European authorities. 

“A crucial aspect of PSD2 is the abolition of the monopoly that banks have over accessing their customers’ account data. This will allow consumers to unlock their data and obtain a wide range of value-added services. It will strengthen the position of financial start-ups, as well as promote the development and use of innovative online and mobile payments and account information services.”

A release states that “the ETPPA organisation has been set-up lean and mean to make membership very affordable and divided into voting and non-voting members to allow different levels of engagement.” Further details are available at www.etppa.org.