The first version of the SPAA scheme rulebook is a subsequent response to the comments received during a three-month rulebook public consultation which ended on 12 September 2022.
All the services listed in version 1.0 of the rulebook are currently positioned as optional. In the coming months, the SPAA Multi-Stakeholder Group will progress on defining a ‘minimum viable product’, meaning a sub-set of services – among those contained in version 1.0 of the rulebook – that will have to be supported by the asset holders participating in the SPAA scheme, as the official communication from the European Payments Council explained.
This selection of the MVP mandatory services will be based on market demand and on the outcome of the work on default business conditions currently being performed by an independent economic consultant. The MVP will be reflected in an updated version of the rulebook which will clearly identify those mandatory services and be published by Q2 2023.
The Rulebook consists of a set of rules, practices and standards that will allow the exchange of payment accounts related data and facilitates the initiation of payment transactions in the context of ‘value-added’ (‘premium’) services provided by asset holders (i.e. Account-Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSPs) to asset brokers (e.g. Third Party Providers (TPPs).
Premium services are to be considered as:
services building on PSD2 regulated ones, but going beyond the minimum regulatory requirements via the combination with (a) so-called premium feature(s). For example, the transaction asset ‘one-off payments’ is a basic service but when combined with a premium feature such as a ‘Payment certainty mechanism’, it becomes a premium service as described under the rulebook.
PSD2 services that are not available via online banking interfaces but provided via a SPAA API.
Another key component of the SPAA scheme that will also be published by Q2 2023 is the set of default business conditions, covering a set of default asset fees for the ‘premium’ assets exposed by the asset holder to the asset broker as well as default API access fees for the use of the SPAA API itself, as provided by the asset holder. The EPC reportedly fully recognises that potential SPAA scheme participants will only be able to take a firm decision as to whether to adhere to the SPAA scheme when they will have a ‘full picture’ of the SPAA scheme, i.e. including the MVP and the default business conditions.
The publication of version 1.0 of the rulebook at this stage will however already enable the market (asset holders, asset brokers, infrastructures, API standardisation initiatives, etc.) to make an early assessment of the SPAA scheme and its requirements on the basis of a stable first version of the rulebook, which should facilitate a timely adoption of the scheme.
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