New EU regulations give new possibilities

In 2018, several new European Union regulations will come into force. The three most comprehensive regulations are MiFID2 (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), PSD2 (Payment Services Directive) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). In brief, the regulations can be described as follows:

PSD2

The purpose of the new directive is to increase competition and thereby customers’ product offerings. PSD2 opens the banking market and allows more players to compete with banks, but it also gives the bank new opportunities to develop and collaborate with others.

PSD2 allows customers to use other financial players (third-party providers) for certain banking services such as account reviews – balance statements, transactions etc. – as well as for payments – pay bills, transfer money to own and others’ accounts.

If the customer gives a third party provider access to their payment account information and/or the right to initiate payments from their bank account, the banks must make this possible for the third party provider. However, it is the customer who chooses what information they want to disclose and which payments to initiate.

GDPR

The primary purpose of GDPR is to give people control over their personal data and to simplify the rules for international business by coordinating EU legislation. GDPR covers all companies and organisations, not just banks.

All personal data are owned by the customer, which means that the customer must be clearly informed about how a service provider uses the information it has about them and for what purpose. Private individuals are entitled to ask the bank to delete information stored on them and/or to transfer information to another company or organisation.

The regulation opens up new opportunities to provide customers with better service and to live up to their expectations of increased transparency.

MiFID2

The regulation affects all savings products except ordinary savings accounts. The intention is to improve customer protection and increase transparency of the products. This means, among other things, that simple, detailed and easily accessible information about the customer’s investment services and financial instruments must be available. For example, the customer’s entire costs and fees must be reported. Customers will also get a better overview of investments and returns. The bank’s savings products will become even clearer and simpler for the customer.