{"id":5498,"date":"2025-09-26T17:17:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wealthapi.eu\/ulrike-czekay\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T17:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:21:13","slug":"from-psd2-to-psd3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wealthapi.eu\/en\/from-psd2-to-psd3\/","title":{"rendered":"From PSD2 to PSD3: Europe’s last chance to make Open Banking a success?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) was introduced in 2018, it promised a revolution by promoting greater competition, more innovation, and increased power for consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, seven years later, we must soberly acknowledge that this revolution never truly happened. Instead, it became a patchwork of technical solutions, regulatory gray areas, and disappointed <\/span>expectations, with frustrating technical implementation, complex integration, and regulatory ambivalence replacing disruptive innovation. <\/p>\n

As the CEO of wealthAPI, a leading provider of financial data aggregation, I have experienced firsthand how wide the gap between regulatory aspirations and operational reality has become. While PSD2 opened a door for Europe, it only opened it partway; with PSD3, we now have the chance to finally push it open completely. Europe is at a turning point, and this is the opportunity to fulfill the promise of Open Banking or to let it fail completely. <\/span><\/p>\n

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PSD2: Good Intentions, Poor Implementation<\/span><\/h2>\n

One cannot accuse PSD2 of being unambitious; the basic idea was sound: customers should be able to grant Third Party Providers (TPPs) access to their account data so they can develop better digital financial products. It was intended to foster competition, enable innovation, and give end-users more control over their financial data. This was meant to create innovation-friendly competition for the benefit of consumers and to modernize the financial sector. On paper, it sounded good. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, theory and practice diverged. What followed was a regulatory experiment where the market had to bear the risks. The European Banking Authority (EBA) and the relevant national authorities imposed new obligations on banks but did not provide an enforceable framework. The result was a proliferation of APIs, security mechanisms, and interpretations of the regulation. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Greatest Failures of PSD2<\/span><\/h3>\n

1. Technical chaos instead of standardization<\/b><\/h4>\n

PSD2 mandated that banks provide Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), but the specifics of their implementation remained vague. The Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) were simply too weak. The result: <\/span><\/p>\n