As the payments industry prepares for a critical period in the implementation of PSD2, research by Finextra and Axway finds that the regulation is opening up opportunities for banks to provide new corporate services in payments, trade and cash management.

The report – PSD2 and open banking: Defining your role in the digital ecosystem – looks at where the industry currently stands with regards to the EU Payments Services Directive (PSD2) and aims to assess the progress being made with open APIs in banking and payments. It notes that corporates, like consumers, are also increasingly expecting digital, innovative payment solutions from their banking partners. Axway's Bruno Cambounet states that both retail and corporate customers require “an omni-channel, tailored, contextual experience, which matches the digital experiences they have when dealing with other providers in their personal and professional lives”.

The key findings of the report include:

• banks have become more strategic in their approach to PSD2 during 2016. They are thinking beyond compliance about the new business opportunities that will arise from the change;
• there is a growing focus on how banks can use PSD2 to provide improved corporate banking services for payments, cash management and trade;
• there is also a growing focus on application programme interfaces (APIs) within PSD2. The report states: “PSD2 is a key driver of the take-up of APIs but it is not the only one – there is a global move to openness and many global banks are responding to this throughout their operations.”
• there is a growing awareness of the need for standardisation of APIs, which is being addressed by the UK’s Open Banking Working Group.