Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 (Text with EEA relevance)

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Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Article 2 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 20 January 2026. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date. Changes that have been made appear in the content and are referenced with annotations.

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Regulation revoked by 2023 c. 29 Sch. 1 Pt. 1

Article 2U.K.Definitions

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

(A1)

[F1“the qualifying area” means the territory of the qualifying States;

(A2)

“qualifying State” means each of the following—

(a)

the EEA states,

(b)

the United Kingdom; and

(c)

Gibraltar;]

(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 [F2qualifying area and within the United Kingdom], and which is separated from any infrastructure or payment system that supports its operation;

(8)

F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(8A)

[F4UK-regulated PSP” means a payment service provider as defined by regulation 2(1) of the Payment Services Regulations 2017;

(8B)

“PSP” means—

(a)

a UK-regulated PSP, or

(b)

a PSP as defined by point (8), as it had effect immediately before IP completion day;]

(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 [F5qualifying area], 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 [F6the United Kingdom] and which can only be used for [F7UK] 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 [F8qualifying] 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 [F9schemes extending to the qualifying area] 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)

[F10“microenterprise” means an enterprise which, at the time of conclusion of the payment service contract, is an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet total (or both) does not exceed EUR 2,000,000; and for this purpose—

(a)

an enterprise is an entity engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form and includes, in particular, self-employed persons and family businesses engaged in craft or other activities, and partnerships or associations regularly engaged in an economic activity, and

(b)

the application of these ceilings to an enterprise which has a relationship with another enterprise and the data to apply to the headcount of staff and the financial amounts are to be determined in the manner described in Articles 3 to 6 of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, but as if references to the ceilings in Article 2 were references to the ceilings in this definition and as if in Article 3(5) the words “or Community” were omitted;]

(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 [F11qualifying] States;

(27)

[F12“UK 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 both located in the United Kingdom, and “UK credit transfer” and “UK direct debit” have corresponding meanings;]

(28)

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

Textual Amendments

F1Art. 2(A1)(A2) inserted (31.12.2020) by The Credit Transfers and Direct Debits in Euro (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/1199), regs. 1(2), 6(2) (with savings in S.I. 2019/680, reg. 11) (as amended by S.I. 2019/680, regs. 1(3), 6(a)(b)); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)