TITLE II

PAYMENT SERVICE PROVIDERS
CHAPTER 2

Common provisions

Access to payment systems
Article 28
1
Member States shall ensure that the rules on access of authorised or registered payment service providers that are legal persons to payment systems shall be objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate and that those rules do not inhibit access more than is necessary to safeguard against specific risks such as settlement risk, operational risk and business risk and to protect the financial and operational stability of the payment system.
Payment systems shall impose on payment service providers, on payment service users or on other payment systems none of the following requirements:
a
any restrictive rule on effective participation in other payment systems;
b
any rule which discriminates between authorised payment service providers or between registered payment service providers in relation to the rights, obligations and entitlements of participants; or
c
any restriction on the basis of institutional status.
2
Paragraph 1 shall not apply to:
a
payment systems designated under Directive 98/26/EC;
b
payment systems composed exclusively of payment service providers belonging to a group composed of entities linked by capital where one of the linked entities enjoys effective control over the other linked entities; or
c
payment systems where a sole payment service provider (whether as a single entity or as a group):
- acts or can act as the payment service provider for both the payer and the payee and is exclusively responsible for the management of the system, and
- licenses other payment service providers to participate in the system and the latter have no right to negotiate fees between or amongst themselves in relation to the payment system although they may establish their own pricing in relation to payers and payees.

Prohibition for persons other than payment service providers to provide payment services
Article 29
Member States shall prohibit natural or legal persons that are neither payment service providers nor explicitly excluded from the scope of this Directive from providing the payment services listed in the Annex.