Twelve finance institutions have signed up to Avaloq’s dedicated Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) solution to meet the forthcoming 14 March deadline.
The firm launched the service at the end of last year to help banks and wealth managers meet the requirements of, and capitalise on, PSD2 and the need to work seamlessly with third party payment service providers. The mid-March deadline means institutions have to offer to third party payment service providers the testing facility six months ahead of the final September 2019 PSD2 implementation deadline.
PSD2, which came into force in January 2018, regulates payment services and payment service providers throughout the European Economic Area. It means that third parties will be allowed to access bank client data and provide value-added payment and banking services if permitted to do so by bank clients. Under the implementation process, financial institutions have to offer their open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to third-party payment service providers six months before September 2019.
Thomas Beck, CTO at Avaloq, says: “Our PSD2 solutions have been designed to simplify the testing and implementation process for financial institutions, as well as to reduce time-to-market and increase security. As such, the implementation risks associated with such programmes are significantly decreased. Avaloq is serving some of the largest financial institutions in the region and expects continued demand for solutions that help with the IT and regulatory challenge they face.”
Avaloq launched its PSD2 software and PSD2 as a service solutions in December 2018, offering an unparalleled range of deployment options tailored to different configurations. Its PSD2 as a service solution comes already integrated into the Avaloq Banking Suite. It is delivered as a turn-key, secured solution, to banks and wealth managers using software as a service (SaaS) or business process as a service (BPaaS) models as well as banks running the Avaloq Banking Suite on their premises.
Paco Hauser, Regional Manager EMEA at Avaloq, adds: “The PSD2 countdown has now truly begun for Europe’s banks and wealth managers. It is crucial that they implement their digital infrastructures to make sure they are fully compliant ahead of the September deadline. Some are seeing it as a threat but Avaloq believes that PSD2 is a huge opportunity for the institutions that embrace it. Our new solutions let banks and wealth managers benefit by giving their clients access to new services while strengthening the relationship with their clients.”
