European Council approves negotiating mandate for new EU payment services rules targeting fraud and fee transparency

EU member states’ representatives in Coreper approved the European Council’s negotiating position on proposals to modernise EU payment services, enabling interinstitutional talks on a new payment services regulation and amendments to the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The package focuses on reducing payment fraud, strengthening consumer protection, improving fee transparency and accommodating new payment technologies. The planned framework would introduce a more comprehensive anti-fraud approach addressing newer scam types such as spoofing. Measures include requirements for payment service providers to share fraud-related information and to enable checks of International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) against the corresponding account name before a transfer is executed. The Council’s mandate strengthens the anti-fraud elements by bringing electronic communications service providers, including internet carriers and messaging platforms, into scope for fraud prevention, clarifying that consumers should not be disadvantaged by fraudulent behaviour, and emphasising close alignment with EU data protection law. On transparency, ATM transactions would have to display all applicable fees and exchange rates before execution, and additional provisions would increase transparency around payment card scheme fees and related rules. The Council’s negotiating mandate allows the Presidency to begin negotiations with the European Parliament on a final text.