PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) is about to revolutionize the provision of payment and banking services within the European Single Market. All banks will be mandated to expose APIs that allow authorized third parties secure access to account information for making payments and carrying out other kinds of banking and financial transactions. Banks will have to compete with a whole host of new entrants into the payment services markets. They include well-known global companies such as Amazon and PayPal, as well as highly innovative fintech startups. Because PSD2 is enabled through APIs, it will be vital for companies exposing [...]

The European Single Market came into being in the early 1990s, but was in many ways more of an aspiration than a process. It wasn't just that there were a lots of vested interests that didn't necessarily want to see all of the friction removed from trans-border transactions. There were also a lot of practical and emotional reasons why people might be reluctant to obtain goods and services from countries on the other side of the continent. This was particularly the case in payment and related financial services, which was why the EU introduced the first Payment Service Directive in [...]