A group of European fintech firm have set up a non-profit organisation to fight the corner of third parties on issues related to the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
The European Third-Party Provider Association (ETPPA) formalises the existing Future of European Fintech coalition into an official non-profit TPP trade association. Founding members include Bankin’, Eurobits, PPRO, Sofort and Trustly.
The FoEF was originally created to lobby against the first draft of the PSD2 regulatory technical standards back in February 2017. Fintech firms felt that provisions on customer authentication and communication were designed to benefit the banks and make life harder for third parties.
The new ETPPA will continue to push the interests of bank-independent third party providers as they jockey with banks over gaining access to customer accounts.
Ralf Ohlhausen, executive advisor, PPRO, says: "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."