Category · essays

Regulatory

Financial regulation shapes every aspect of how money moves in the modern economy. This collection examines regulatory frameworks like PSD2, Open Banking, and consumer protection mandates, analyzing their impact on innovation, competition, and user experience. Beyond compliance, these articles explore how regulation can be a catalyst for positive change, innovation vs. consumer protection, and how financial institutions can navigate complex environments while delivering exceptional experiences.

  1. № 1 · 06 Oct
    Regulatory

    Authorised to do what?

    Visa's rules make a cardholder responsible for an agent's purchase as if they initiated it. PSD2 asks whether they consented. A 2024 CJEU case on human proxies suggests what an issuer will have to prove, and the answer runs through the record of what the agent was told.

    5 min read
  2. № 2 · 22 Sep
    Regulatory

    Reading a Compromise Text

    Four PSR articles with small textual changes and a changed obligation in each. A method for checking the obligations in your implementation plan against the April compromise, using the comparison and following its references.

    3 min read
  3. № 3 · 15 Sep
    Regulatory

    Give your AI the source

    Connect ChatGPT or Claude directly to paymentslaw.eu and check the sources behind an SCA answer. A free, read-only connection to 51 curated EU payments instruments, with provisions, source editions and citations you can open.

    2 min read
  4. № 4 · 08 Sep
    Regulatory

    SCA gets a promotion

    Strong Customer Authentication is being moved into a directly applicable regulation, not just amended. Your transition plan needs to separate what the text specifies, what waits on the EBA, and what it assumes about the handover. The law leaves that last part implicit.

    9 min read
  5. № 5 · 01 Sep
    Regulatory

    Where the payments package actually is

    A May forecast for summer publication has come and gone. The official record now points to December, and carries a status line that reads backwards until you know the procedure.

    3 min read
  6. № 6 · 25 Aug
    Regulatory

    Three numbers that no longer exist

    The PSD3 and PSR timetable has moved, but many summaries have not. The April 2026 compromise texts change the planning assumptions and contain two easily missed provisions that apply from entry into force.

    5 min read
  7. № 7 · 04 May
    Regulatory

    Meet Alexandre Lamfalussy

    PSD3 and the PSR have cleared trilogue. Coreper has the final texts. None of that tells you when the rules will apply to your business. A primer on the four-level framework that determines when EU payments regulation lands.

    5 min read
  8. № 8 · 22 Aug
    AI & Automation

    Second-Order Thinking: What the UK's Age-Check Law Taught Us About Regulation (and Why It Matters for AI)

    Politicians love declaring victory. A new law passes, the metrics move in the right direction, and success is proclaimed. But in complex systems, the first metric to move is rarely the one that matters most.

    4 min read
  9. № 9 · 18 Jul
    Regulatory

    The £42 Million Lesson: What Barclays' FCA Fine Teaches the Digital Payments Industry

    Barclays' £42m FCA fine for "one simple check" failure offers crucial lessons for digital payments. Analysis of how basic compliance gaps facilitated £46.8m in money laundering and what fintech, eCommerce and payment firms must do to avoid similar costly mistakes in an evolving regulatory landscape.

    4 min read
  10. № 10 · 09 Jul
    Regulatory

    When Systems Meet Reality: The Vocalink Fine and Lessons for Infrastructure Governance

    When critical reports warning of "serious un-remediated issues" sit buried in email chains while boards sign compliance confirmations, something has gone catastrophically wrong. The Vocalink case reveals how even well-intentioned governance systems can fail when information flows break down.

    5 min read
  11. № 11 · 08 Jul

    Monzo's £21 Million Fine: A Systems-Thinking Post-Mortem

    Monzo's £21 million FCA fine reveals a fundamental truth about scaling: product engines grow exponentially while compliance scales linearly. When growth and risk controls diverge, you're not building a business—you're building a time bomb.

    4 min read
  12. № 12 · 26 Feb
    Regulatory

    The Fragility of Transatlantic Data Transfers

    As digital commerce grows increasingly global, the legal frameworks governing data transfers across borders have never been more important. Yet these frameworks remain surprisingly fragile, especially between the EU and US.

    2 min read