Is Libra e-money or rather a virtual currency? Since Libra is based on blockchain technology, it would stand to reason that Libra is a cryptocurrency. However, the underlying technology is not relevant for the regulatory classification. From a European point of view, there are two possible categories for Libra: e-money (as defined in EMD2) or […]
…also for people who have so far not looked into blockchain… What is the Libra cryptocurrency? Facebook has announced, in conjunction with other companies, that it will issue its own Libra cryptocurrency. It is remarkable that so many very large companies, some of which are competitors, have joined forces to do this. Their aim is […]
After the European Banking Authority (EBA) sparked considerable excitement with one of its answers given in the Q&A tool (see my article on the possibly dim future of online SEPA direct debit payments, and the BaFin had already published a statement (see “Strong customer authentication for online SEPA direct debit payments”), the EBA clarification has […]
You shall never ask me? But questions are useful as sometimes answers are indeed given… In one of my last posts I dealt with the problematic EBA response concerning strong customer authentication for online SEPA direct debit payments. The EBA had stated that when setting up an online SEPA mandate strong customer authentication was required. […]
In our 34th episode of PayTechTalk I talked with my colleague Christian about the licence types for payment service providers. Upon hearing this podcast, Marko Wenthin, one of the co-founders of SolarisBank, asked us to talk in more detail about application for authorization and in particular about directors, qualifying holdings, and capital requirements, as it […]
The hype surrounding ICOs has cooled down a bit of late, but now Germany is seeing its first Security Token Offering from Bitbond Finance GmbH. What is behind it? How is it different to an ICO? In order to answer these and other questions, let’s take a closer look at the topic. A Security Token […]
A new response by the EBA in their Q&A tool may have a huge impact on the future of online SEPA direct debit payments. When asked if strong customer authentication (SCA) has to be applied to the electronic processing of online SEPA direct debit payments, the EBA responded that the setting up of such a […]
A heated debate has been going on for years as to whether account information services providers (AISP) and payment initiation services providers (PISP) and card based payment instrument issuers (CBPII) may use screen scraping as a means of accessing the payment user’s account at their payment account service provider (ASPSP). With PSD2 and more specifically, […]
Identity management and strong customer authentication are the talk of the day. However, the terminology is more than confusing. For example, customers need to be identified for the purposes of AML, they need to authorize a payment, and when authenticating themselves, it is checked whether they are actually the person they pretend to be. I […]
The German Payment Accounts Act (Zahlungskontengesetz, ZKG) already entered into force in 2016. The key part of the law is the basic account, which gives people living in the EU the right to an account with basic functions. This also applies to refugees and in order to ensure this, even the Anti-Money Laundering Act was […]