Payment Services Directive

In a landmark development, the European Union (EU) has ushered in a new era of financial transactions with the introduction of instant Euro transfers that take just 10 seconds. This transformative change is the result of an agreement between EU member states and the European Parliament, underpinned by a proposal made by the European Commission a year ago.

Banks and their customers have so far noticed little impact from the EU's second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which came into force in the European Economic Area (EEA) on Jan. 1 last year. The full potential effect of PSD2--designed to boost competition and the variety of products in the payments space--will only materialize on Sept.

The EU Council, bringing together Member State Ministers, said it had adopted changes yesterday to align the costs of cross-border euro payments between eurozone and non-eurozone countries and increase transparency in charges for currency conversion services.

BELGRADE - The new payment services law will bring significant improvements, creating a legal basis for boosting competition in the payment services market, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) has said in a statement.