On July 28, 2016 the EBA published final draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) relating to the separation of payment card schemes and payment processing entities under the Interchange Fee Regulation ((EU) 2015/751) (IFR) (EBA/RTS/2016/05).

The final draft RTS have been developed under Article 7(6) of the IFR. Under this article the EBA must specify the requirements with which payment card schemes and processing entities have to comply in order to guarantee the independence of their accounting, organizational and decision-making processes. The accompanying press release highlights that the aim of the final draft RTS is to facilitate greater competition among processing services providers, which is in line with the general objective of the IFR to create a single market for card payments across the EU.

Under the final draft RTS payment card schemes and processing entities are required to:

• have accounting processes in place to produce annual information related to separated profit and loss accounts reviewed by an independent and certified auditor;
• have separate workspaces; and
• ensure the independence of senior management, management bodies and staff.

The final draft RTS will now be submitted to the European Commission for endorsement.