Lack of Transparency In Negotiation Of #PSD2

I don't think the Beurocrats are terribly concerned by rampant Euroscepticism pervading national electorates. The byzantine EU legislative process trundles on as secretively as ever. All the nonsense about immigration is a nice distraction from lack of transparency on more fundamental issues.

The latest attempt at a fait accompli is the revised proposal for a new Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which is designed to shape the EU's payment systems for the decade to come. Having published several drafts previously with some attempt to mark-up the changes from previous meetings of member state representatives, a rapid-fire draft (dated 21 November) was suddenly published on 24 November, the same day it was due to be debated.

Today, as a result of the 24 November negotiations, a further draft (dated 1 December) was published without any changes marked, along with a recommendation that it be used as the basis for negotiations with the EU Parliament. Never mind that alternative service providers and other stakeholders with minimal lobbying power are attempting to understand and warn of the impact of seismic changes to the payments regulatory framework.

This is no way to approach the regulation of the EU financial system - if you have any interest at all in bringing the market along with you. But it's a perfect way to leave control of the market to the major banks and card schemes who have lobbyists plugged into the process.

Rant ends. I'll be trying to update my article on the changes to the proposals in the coming week.

Though it's hard to see the point.