Payments Regulation Sounding Board (PRSB)

Mission

The mission of the Payments Regulation Sounding Board (PRSB) is to assist the EBA Board in identifying & evaluating relevant regulations and regulatory initiatives with a direct/indirect impact on payments and to assess the need for related dedicated activities from a pan-European perspective.

The PRSB also monitors the European payments regulation landscape and considers requests from EBA members. The PRSB prepares proposals to the EBA Board on the creation of dedicated activity groups in relation to a specific regulation or an upcoming regulatory initiative.

Terms of Reference

Publications

Note on impact of EU VAT Fraud Directive

The EU Directive 2020/284 ("EU VAT Fraud Directive") introduces new record keeping and potential reporting obligations on European payment service providers effective 1 January 2024.

The Directive requires PSPs to keep records of, and make available to their national tax authority, data on cross-border payments – even those transacted within SEPA’s geographical scope. The aim is to enable tax authorities to carry out controls to achieve their objective of combatting value-added tax (VAT) fraud. The scope of the obligation includes all payment instruments, including credit transfers, direct debits and card payments (both credit and debit).

The EBA has published a note on the potential impact of the EU VAT Fraud Directive on PSPs to raise awareness of the upcoming requirements.

Summary of the Retail Payments Strategy

In September 2020, the European Commission (EC) adopted a new Digital Finance Package which consists of the Retail Payments Strategy (RPS), the Digital Finance Strategy, legislative proposals for an EU regulatory framework on crypto-assets, and proposals for an EU regulatory framework on digital operational resilience. 

As part of its monitoring work, the PRSB has started to look into the Digital Finance Package, focussing first on the RPS. As part of this analysis, the group created an objective summary of the Retail Payments Strategy.