On December 14, 2016, the European Banking Authority (“EBA“) published the regulatory technical final draft on passport notifications under the revised Payment Services Directive ((EU) 2015/2366) (“PSD2“) (EBA/RTS/2016/08).

Article 28 of PSD2 requires an authorized payment institution to inform the competent authorities of its home member state if it wishes to provide payment services for the first time in one or more member states other than its home member state. Article 28(5) gives the EBA a mandate to develop draft RTS, specifying method, means and details of the cross-border cooperation between competent authorities in the context of passport notifications of payment institutions. The RTS must include the scope of information to be submitted, a common terminology and standard templates, to ensure that the process is consistent and efficient.

The EBA consulted on the draft RTS in December 2015. Changes to the final version of the RTS in light of responses to the consultation include:

• More clarity for when a payment institution uses an agent or an e-money institution uses a distributor.
• New provisions so that payment institutions will be informed when the notification is transmitted from the competent authority in the home member state to the authority in the host member state.
• A new field in a number of templates to include the legal entity identifier (LEI) as an identification number where available.
• Deletion of information relating to governance arrangements and internal control mechanisms, outsourcing and the agent structural organization.

The EBA has also published a flowchart providing a guide to competent authorities on which notification templates to use, a copy of which can be found here.

The final draft RTS will now be submitted to the European Commission for endorsement. The draft Delegated Regulation states that it shall enter into force 20 days after it is published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJ).