E-money, payment institutions, payment systems, online payment system providers – at a first glimpse all these terms look similar, but in fact they refer to different issues regulated by:
- Bulgarian Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems,
- Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market (amending Directives 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC),
- Directive 2009/110/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions (amending Directives 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 2000/46/EC) and
- Latest PSD2 Directive 2015/2366/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and repealing Directive 2007/64/EC.
The above documents regulate the requirements to the payment service providers which, apart from banks, inclusive European Central Bank and the national central banks of the member states, can be two types:
- Payment institutions
- Electronic money institutions
From 13 January 2018 all EU member states are obliged to apply the rules of PSD2. In October 2017 Bulgarian government proposed amendments to payment service legislation which are expected to be adopted by Parliament by the end of the year. Since new procedure and requirements have not been announced yet, the article below gives only basic guidelines on the matter based on current laws. read more
