Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Show full title

TITLE I SUBJECT MATTER, SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

Article 1 Subject matter

1. This Directive lays down the rules in accordance with which Member States shall distinguish the following six categories of payment service provider:

(a) credit institutions within the meaning of Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2006/48/EC;

(b) electronic money institutions within the meaning of Article 1(3)(a) of Directive 2000/46/EC;

(c) post office giro institutions which are entitled under national law to provide payment services;

(d) payment institutions within the meaning of this Directive;

(e) the European Central Bank and national central banks when not acting in their capacity as monetary authority or other public authorities;

(f) Member States or their regional or local authorities when not acting in their capacity as public authorities.

2. This Directive also lays down rules concerning transparency of conditions and information requirements for payment services, and the respective rights and obligations of payment service users and payment service providers in relation to the provision of payment services as a regular occupation or business activity.

Article 2 Scope

1. This Directive shall apply to payment services provided within the Community. However, with the exception of Article 73, Titles III and IV shall apply only where both the payer's payment service provider and the payee's payment service provider are, or the sole payment service provider in the payment transaction is, located in the Community.

2. Titles III and IV shall apply to payment services made in euro or the currency of a Member State outside the euro area.

3. Member States may waive the application of all or part of the provisions of this Directive to the institutions referred to in Article 2 of Directive 2006/48/EC, with the exception of those referred to in the first and second indent of that article.

Article 3 Negative scope

This Directive shall apply to none of the following:

(a)

payment transactions made exclusively in cash directly from the payer to the payee, without any intermediary intervention;

(b)

payment transactions from the payer to the payee through a commercial agent authorised to negotiate or conclude the sale or purchase of goods or services on behalf of the payer or the payee;

(c)

professional physical transport of banknotes and coins, including their collection, processing and delivery;

(d)

payment transactions consisting of the non-professional cash collection and delivery within the framework of a non-profit or charitable activity;

(e)

services where cash is provided by the payee to the payer as part of a payment transaction following an explicit request by the payment service user just before the execution of the payment transaction through a payment for the purchase of goods or services;

(f)

money exchange business, that is to say, cash-to-cash operations, where the funds are not held on a payment account;

(g)

payment transactions based on any of the following documents drawn on the payment service provider with a view to placing funds at the disposal of the payee:

(i)

paper cheques in accordance with the Geneva Convention of 19 March 1931 providing a uniform law for cheques;

(ii)

paper cheques similar to those referred to in point (i) and governed by the laws of Member States which are not party to the Geneva Convention of 19 March 1931 providing a uniform law for cheques;

(iii)

paper-based drafts in accordance with the Geneva Convention of 7 June 1930 providing a uniform law for bills of exchange and promissory notes;

(iv)

paper-based drafts similar to those referred to in point (iii) and governed by the laws of Member States which are not party to the Geneva Convention of 7 June 1930 providing a uniform law for bills of exchange and promissory notes;

(v)

paper-based vouchers;

(vi)

paper-based traveller's cheques; or

(vii)

paper-based postal money orders as defined by the Universal Postal Union;

(h)

payment transactions carried out within a payment or securities settlement system between settlement agents, central counterparties, clearing houses and/or central banks and other participants of the system, and payment service providers, without prejudice to Article 28;

(i)

payment transactions related to securities asset servicing, including dividends, income or other distributions, or redemption or sale, carried out by persons referred to in point (h) or by investment firms, credit institutions, collective investment undertakings or asset management companies providing investment services and any other entities allowed to have the custody of financial instruments;

(j)

services provided by technical service providers, which support the provision of payment services, without them entering at any time into possession of the funds to be transferred, including processing and storage of data, trust and privacy protection services, data and entity authentication, information technology (IT) and communication network provision, provision and maintenance of terminals and devices used for payment services;

(k)

services based on instruments that can be used to acquire goods or services only in the premises used by the issuer or under a commercial agreement with the issuer either within a limited network of service providers or for a limited range of goods or services;

(l)

payment transactions executed by means of any telecommunication, digital or IT device, where the goods or services purchased are delivered to and are to be used through a telecommunication, digital or IT device, provided that the telecommunication, digital or IT operator does not act only as an intermediary between the payment service user and the supplier of the goods and services;

(m)

payment transactions carried out between payment service providers, their agents or branches for their own account;

(n)

payment transactions between a parent undertaking and its subsidiary or between subsidiaries of the same parent undertaking, without any intermediary intervention by a payment service provider other than an undertaking belonging to the same group; or

(o)

services by providers to withdraw cash by means of automated teller machines acting on behalf of one or more card issuers, which are not a party to the framework contract with the customer withdrawing money from a payment account, on condition that these providers do not conduct other payment services as listed in the Annex.

Article 4 Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:

1.

‘home Member State’ means either of the following:

(i)

the Member State in which the registered office of the payment service provider is situated; or

(ii)

if the payment service provider has, under its national law, no registered office, the Member State in which its head office is situated;

2.

‘host Member State’ means the Member State other than the home Member State in which a payment service provider has an agent or a branch or provides payment services;

3.

‘payment service’ means any business activity listed in the Annex;

4.

‘payment institution’ means a legal person that has been granted authorisation in accordance with Article 10 to provide and execute payment services throughout the Community;

5.

‘payment transaction’ means an act, initiated by the payer or by the payee, of placing, transferring or withdrawing funds, irrespective of any underlying obligations between the payer and the payee;

6.

‘payment system’ means a funds transfer system with formal and standardised arrangements and common rules for the processing, clearing and/or settlement of payment transactions;

7.

‘payer’ means a natural or legal person who holds a payment account and allows a payment order from that payment account, or, where there is no payment account, a natural or legal person who gives a payment order;

8.

‘payee’ means a natural or legal person who is the intended recipient of funds which have been the subject of a payment transaction;

9.

‘payment service provider’ means bodies referred to in Article 1(1) and legal and natural persons benefiting from the waiver under Article 26;

10.

‘payment service user’ means a natural or legal person making use of a payment service in the capacity of either payer or payee, or both;

11.

‘consumer’ means a natural person who, in payment service contracts covered by this Directive, is acting for purposes other than his trade, business or profession;

12.

‘framework contract’ means a payment service contract which governs the future execution of individual and successive payment transactions and which may contain the obligation and conditions for setting up a payment account;

13.

‘money remittance’ means a payment service where funds are received from a payer, without any payment accounts being created in the name of the payer or the payee, for the sole purpose of transferring a corresponding amount to a payee or to another payment service provider acting on behalf of the payee, and/or where such funds are received on behalf of and made available to the payee;

14.

‘payment account’ means an account held in the name of one or more payment service users which is used for the execution of payment transactions;

15.

‘funds’ means banknotes and coins, scriptural money and electronic money as defined in Article 1(3)(b) of Directive 2000/46/EC;

16.

‘payment order’ means any instruction by a payer or payee to his payment service provider requesting the execution of a payment transaction;

17.

‘value date’ means a reference time used by a payment service provider for the calculation of interest on the funds debited from or credited to a payment account;

18.

‘reference exchange rate’ means the exchange rate which is used as the basis to calculate any currency exchange and which is made available by the payment service provider or comes from a publicly available source;

19.

‘authentication’ means a procedure which allows the payment service provider to verify the use of a specific payment instrument, including its personalised security features;

20.

‘reference interest rate’ means the interest rate which is used as the basis for calculating any interest to be applied and which comes from a publicly available source which can be verified by both parties to a payment service contract;

21.

‘unique identifier’ means a combination of letters, numbers or symbols specified to the payment service user by the payment service provider and to be provided by the payment service user to identify unambiguously the other payment service user and/or his payment account for a payment transaction;

22.

‘agent’ means a natural or legal person which acts on behalf of a payment institution in providing payment services;

23.

‘payment instrument’ means any personalised device(s) and/or set of procedures agreed between the payment service user and the payment service provider and used by the payment service user in order to initiate a payment order;

24.

‘means of distance communication’ refers to any means which, without the simultaneous physical presence of the payment service provider and the payment service user, may be used for the conclusion of a payment services contract;

25.

‘durable medium’ means any instrument which enables the payment service user to store information addressed personally to him in a way accessible for future reference for a period of time adequate to the purposes of the information and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

26.

‘micro-enterprise’ means an enterprise, which at the time of conclusion of the payment service contract, is an enterprise as defined in Article 1 and Article 2(1) and (3) of the Annex to Recommendation 2003/361/EC;

27.

‘business day’ means a day on which the relevant payment service provider of the payer or the payment service provider of the payee involved in the execution of a payment transaction is open for business as required for the execution of a payment transaction;

28.

‘direct debit’ means a payment service for debiting a payer's payment account, where a payment transaction is initiated by the payee on the basis of the payer's consent given to the payee, to the payee's payment service provider or to the payer's own payment service provider;

29.

‘branch’ means a place of business other than the head office which is a part of a payment institution, which has no legal personality and which carries out directly some or all of the transactions inherent in the business of a payment institution; all the places of business set up in the same Member State by a payment institution with a head office in another Member State shall be regarded as a single branch;

30.

‘group’ means a group of undertakings, which consists of a parent undertaking, its subsidiaries and the entities in which the parent undertaking or its subsidiaries have a holding as well as undertakings linked to each other by a relationship referred to in Article 12(1) of Directive 83/349/EEC.