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Iberpay, which oversees Spain’s national payments system, has hit a milestone after it incorporated its first electronic money institution (EMI).
Pecunpay, an EMI, has connected to the Spanish national payment system as an accessible entity, through a partnership with Inversis, Iberpay has announced.
Pecunpay, which produces products such as Pecunia Cards and was the first Spanish issuer of UnionPay backed cards, was founded in 2015.
Like other EMIs in the country, it is regulated by the central bank, Banco de Espana.
Inversis, meanwhile, was founded in 2001 and its website says that it provides global technology solutions and outsourcing services to financial institutions, insurers and new players in the distribution of investment products.
Having been incorporated on December 1, Pecunpay can now process the payments, including credit transfers and direct debits, of its clients using its own IBAN codes, across Iberpay’s system.
The regulation of the national payment system (SNCE), first passed in 2011, was adapted in December 2020 to allow access to payment institutions and electronic money as "accessible entities" in the system. This is also in line with pan-EU payment systems such as EBA CLEARING’s RT1 and STEP2 and the European Central Bank’s TIPS.
Iberpay also suggests that this reform was a response to the “remarkable dynamism and technological transformation” shown by payment services in Europe after the entry into force of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
It is through this adaptation that credit institutions that are direct members of the system have the option of designating "accessible entities", or non-bank entities.
“With this important milestone, the Spanish payment system reinforces its leadership position as one of the most advanced, innovative and efficient payment systems in the European context, with a significant demand from fintech entities interested in joining the system in the coming months to process your payment activity,” said Iberpay in a statement.
The move towards opening up payment systems to non-bank entities is part of a wider trend to improve access both through direct participation and indirect participation..
Recently, Canadian firms have been lobbying for wider access.
As reported by VIXIO in December last year, 14 financial organisations, including Payments Canada, signed a joint letter to the finance minister calling for changes to the Canadian Payments Act.
The organisations are pushing for the government to expand Payments Canada’s membership eligibility to registered payment service providers (PSPs), local credit unions and financial market infrastructure entities.
This follows a November 2021 intervention from Square, which told Payments Canada that expanding access is critical to supporting innovation and competition in the market.
Meanwhile in the UK, things have moved further ahead. A report last January by the Payment Systems Regulator found that the access of payment service providers to interbank payment systems has continued to grow.
In particular, the report revealed that new entrant indirect access providers (IAPs) have a growing customer base.
Since 2015, for example, the number of IAPs has doubled from four to eight.
The new entrants — Modulr, LHV Pank, ClearBank and Starling — now provide access to more than 150 PSPs between them, alongside established IAPs Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest.
New entrant IAPs often provide services to smaller PSPs and small money remitters, those that historically had the most difficulty gaining access, the report says.
