On 24 July 2013, the European Commission published a proposal to revise the Payment Services Directive (PSD). The main aim of the Directive is to strengthen the European payments market and to increase the security of payment services within the EU.
The GSMA has been highly involved during the European Commission Inter-Service consultation and the current negotiation phase between the Council and European Parliament, as the Directive has a direct impact on mobile payment services.
One of the main objectives of the GSMA is to ensure that some form of digital goods exemption is maintained in the revised Directive. Its complete removal would present unnecessary costs and obstacles to the roll out of new mobile payment services. The GSMA is also looking to clarify the definition of a payment initiation service to ensure that mobile wallets are not covered in the scope of the Directive. Moreover, the Directive should make a technology-neutral interpretation of the so-called limited network exemption, so that mobile operators can still provide mobile ticketing services.