Revised Payment Services Directive - Access to Accounts Principle as a Means of Promoting Competition

Digitalisation is quickly altering the ways in which people make payment transactions and manage their finances. This has led to the emergence of new types of financial services such as payment initiation and account information services that are provided by non-bank service providers, also known as third party providers. The providers of these new innovative payment services compete with the traditional banks in the European payment services market but at the same time the functionality of their services is dependent on the infrastructure and data possessed by the banks. This thesis focuses on the so-called access to accounts principle that was introduced as a part of the EU’s Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) that became applicable in January 2018. One of the main objectives of the access to accounts framework is to increase competition between incumbent banks and new market entrants by removing barriers to entry and creating a level playing field in the payment services market. Under the access to accounts rules banks are obliged to grant each authorised third party provider access to the payment account information of the customers of the bank, provided that the third party provider has obtained an explicit consent from each customer. Since increasing competition is a crucial part of PSD2’s objectives this study aims to assess the effectiveness of access to accounts rules in the light of competition. The first half of the thesis introduces the access to accounts framework and discusses the analogies between competition law’s refusal to deal doctrine and the situation in the pre-PSD2 payment services market. It is concluded that payment account information has several characteristics of an essential facility and that anti-competitive refusals to deal have therefore been possible in the EU payment services market prior to PSD2. The primary methodology of the first half is the legal doctrinal method. The second half of the thesis has a more future-oriented approach and the method utilised is closest to law and economics. This part of the thesis aims to evaluate how effective will the access to accounts framework be against potential anti-competitive practices of the banks. In this context potential gaps in the banks’ duty to deal are highlighted and the overall levelness of the playing field in the payment services market is discussed. The assessment of the prevailing competition issues demonstrates that even though PSD2’s access to accounts rules are an important leap forward the banks will maintain de facto control of payment account access in many ways. Therefore, a level playing field between all service providers in the EU payment services market is not yet a reality