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This anide focuses on recent developments in payments regulation within the EU and how they serve as drivers of change for increased competition and the development of new payment services. The article analyzes the recently revised Electronic Money Directive, the 2009 Payment Services Directive, and the creation of a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and assesses the potential impact of such changes on the growth of the mobile payments sector within the EU.
Cet anide traite de l'évolution récente de la réglementation sur les paiements dans l'Union européenne et de la façon dont cette réglementation y favorise la concurrence et le développement de nouveaux services de paiement. L'auteur examine la directive Monnaie électronique qui vient d'être mise à jour, la directive sur les services de paiement de 2009 et la création d'un espace unique de paiement en euros (SEPA) puis évalue leur incidence éventuelle sur la croissance du secteur des paiements mobiles dans l'Union européenne.
The European payment landscape has been evolving at some pace. The last ten years yielded three new European Directives - regulating e-money and payment services, four new types of payment service providers have been created - small and fully authorized e-money and payment institutions, and significant steps toward the creation of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). In addition to these new institutions, a raft of conduct-of-business obligations have been introduced along with provisions designed to facilitate EU-wide competition.1
1. EU REGULATORY BACKGROUND
(a) Initial Steps toward Regulation
The genesis of these developments can be traced to attempts in the late 1990s to encourage innovation in the prepaid-payment sector by opening up the market to non-bank providers. The Electronic Money Directive (EMD) was the outcome of this process. It created the twin concepts of regulated Electronic Money Institutions (EMI) and exempted Small Electronic Money Institutions (SEMI). These entities were allowed to offer "electronic money", conceived as a prepaid electronic-payment product. Electronic money, or "e-money", included online prepaid products such as PayPal as well as prepaid card-based offerings and mobile "wallets". The EMD carved out the "prepaid" payment space from the credit-institution regime that previously had a monopoly on prepaid payments. These were regarded at the time as giving rise to the regulated activity of deposit taking.
The European...