On June 13, 2018, the European Banking Association (“EBA“) published a consultation paper (EBA/CP/2018/09) on draft guidelines on the conditions to be met to benefit from an exemption from contingency measures under Article 33(6) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389, which sets out regulatory technical standards (“RTS“) on strong customer authentication (“SCA“) and common and secure communication (“CSC“) under the revised Payment Services Directive ((EU) 2015/2366) (“PSD2“).

Alongside the consultation paper, the EBA has published an opinion (EBA-Op-2018-04) on implementation of the RTS on SCA and CSC. Both the draft guidelines and the opinion are designed to clarify a number of issues identified by market participants relating to the RTS on SCA and CSC, which will apply from 14 September 2019.

The draft guidelines propose a pragmatic and consistent approach to the four conditions that an account servicing payment service provider (“ASPSP“) must meet if it wishes to benefit from an exemption from the fallback option envisaged under Article 33(6) of the Delegated Regulation. The EBA considers that the draft guidelines provide clarity for all parties involved (that is, ASPSPs, national competent authorities (“NCAs“) and the EBA) on the information to be considered to determine whether an exemption request meets the Article 33(6) conditions. In particular, the guidelines will enable NCAs to carry out a quick assessment of exemption requests, especially during the time when the bulk of these requests are received.

The EBA plans to hold a public hearing to discuss the draft guidelines on 25 July 2018. Comments can be made on the draft guidelines until 13 August 2018.

The opinion focuses on implementation of the RTS. It sets out the EBA’s views in “pressing” areas identified by the market and NCAs, including on exemptions to SCA, consent, the scope of data sharing, and requirements for application programming interfaces (“APIs“) and dedicated interfaces to take into account. Although the opinion is addressed to NCAs, given the supervisory expectations it is conveying, the EBA advises it should prove useful for PSPs, among others.

In the opinion, the EBA explains that it will provide further clarification on interpretation of the RTS on SCA and CSC through its online interactive single rulebook and Q&A tool. The tool will be extended to PSD2-related queries by the end of June 2018.