On 22 June 2022, the European Payments Council (EPC) launched a three-month public consultation on the draft rulebook of its new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Payment Account Access (SPAA) scheme. The SPAA scheme rulebook public consultation was very encouraging, with the market showing a high level of interest. The EPC received over 300 comments from 29 different market participants.
The overview document which includes the public consultation comments received as well as the related responses from the SPAA Multi-Stakeholder Group (SPAA MSG), can be downloaded below. For each comment it is indicated (in column “Release”) whether it i) has been incorporated in version 1.0 of the SPAA scheme rulebook, ii) cannot be included (or has no impact) or iii) can be revisited as part of a future release.
On 30 November 2022, the EPC published version 1.0 of the SPAA scheme rulebook, in which all the services are currently positioned as optional. In the coming months, the SPAA MSG will progress on defining a ‘minimum viable product’ (MVP), i.e. a sub-set of services - among those contained in version 1.0 of the rulebook - that will have to be supported by the asset holders participating in the SPAA scheme. This selection of the MVP mandatory services will be based on market demand and on the outcome of the work on default business conditions currently being performed by an independent economic consultant. The MVP will be reflected in an updated version of the rulebook which will clearly identify those mandatory services and be published by Q2 2023.
On 16 December 2022, the EPC also launched a 90-day public consultation on the extension of sections in version 1.0 of the SPAA scheme rulebook about the usage of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). Interested stakeholders are invited to submit their comments by 15 March 2023 (midnight Brussels time).