Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 2 Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1)

‘credit transfer’ means a national or cross-border payment service for crediting a payee’s payment account with a payment transaction or a series of payment transactions from a payer’s payment account by the PSP which holds the payer’s payment account, based on an instruction given by the payer;

(2)

‘direct debit’ means a national or cross-border 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;

(3)

‘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 payer’s payment account, a natural or legal person who makes a payment order to a payee’s payment account;

(4)

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

(5)

‘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;

(6)

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

(7)

‘payment scheme’ means a single set of rules, practices, standards and/or implementation guidelines agreed between PSPs for the execution of payment transactions across the Union and within Member States, and which is separated from any infrastructure or payment system that supports its operation;

(8)

‘PSP’ means a payment service provider falling under any of the categories referred to in Article 1(1) of Directive 2007/64/EC and the legal and natural persons referred to in Article 26 of Directive 2007/64/EC, but excludes the bodies listed in Article 2 of Directive 2006/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions(1) benefiting from a waiver under Article 2(3) of Directive 2007/64/EC;

(9)

‘PSU’ means a natural or legal person making use of a payment service in the capacity of payer or payee;

(10)

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

(11)

‘payment order’ means an instruction by a payer or payee to his PSP requesting the execution of a payment transaction;

(12)

‘interchange fee’ means a fee paid between the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP for direct debit transactions;

(13)

‘MIF’ means a multilateral interchange fee which is subject to an arrangement between more than two PSPs;

(14)

‘BBAN’ means a payment account number identifier, which unambiguously identifies an individual payment account with a PSP in a Member State and which can only be used for national payment transactions while the same payment account is identified by IBAN for cross-border payment transactions;

(15)

‘IBAN’ means an international payment account number identifier, which unambiguously identifies an individual payment account in a Member State, the elements of which are specified by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO);

(16)

‘BIC’ means a business identifier code that unambiguously identifies a PSP, the elements of which are specified by the ISO;

(17)

‘ISO 20022 XML standard’ means a standard for the development of electronic financial messages as defined by the ISO, encompassing the physical representation of the payment transactions in XML syntax, in accordance with business rules and implementation guidelines of Union-wide schemes for payment transactions falling within the scope of this Regulation;

(18)

‘large-value payment system’ means a payment system the main purpose of which is to process, clear or settle single payment transactions of high priority and urgency, and primarily of large amount;

(19)

‘settlement date’ means a date on which obligations with respect to the transfer of funds are discharged between the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP;

(20)

‘collection’ means a part of a direct debit transaction starting from its initiation by the payee until its end through the normal debiting of the payer’s payment account;

(21)

‘mandate’ means the expression of consent and authorisation given by the payer to the payee and (directly or indirectly via the payee) to the payer’s PSP to allow the payee to initiate a collection for debiting the payer’s specified payment account and to allow the payer’s PSP to comply with such instructions;

(22)

‘retail payment system’ means a payment system the main purpose of which is to process, clear or settle credit transfers or direct debits, which are generally bundled together for transmission and are primarily of small amount and low priority, and that is not a large-value payment system;

(23)

‘microenterprise’ 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 Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC(2);

(24)

‘consumer’ means a natural person acting for purposes other than trade, business or profession in payment service contracts;

(25)

‘R-transaction’ means a payment transaction which cannot be properly executed by a PSP or which results in exception processing, inter alia, because of a lack of funds, revocation, a wrong amount or a wrong date, a lack of mandate or wrong or closed account;

(26)

‘cross-border payment transaction’ means a payment transaction initiated by a payer or by a payee where the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP are located in different Member States;

(27)

‘national payment transaction’ means a payment transaction initiated by a payer or by a payee, where the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP are located in the same Member State;

(28)

‘reference party’ means a natural or legal person on behalf of whom a payer makes a payment or a payee receives a payment.

(1)

OJ L 177, 30.6.2006, p. 1.

(2)

OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36.