MV: I do not quite understand what the motivation for that should be? While our mission is to serve the Europeans and European consumers we are committed to being neutral both regarding corporate ownership, regarding the nationality of companies, and whether they are public or private entities. The basis of MIF is to set some reasonable fees to make payments - for the benefit of the European consumers and the benefit of business owners.
banks should exploit the opportunities and embrace these developments. The entire payments area is changing drastically. I think that PSD2 is the necessary push that will make the banks start moving forward. Otherwise, new competitors will enter the scene. MJR: And they already do that... MV: Yes, they already do. We can see it here in Copenhagen. Copenhagen is developing a hub for this type of technology because the city has decided to make the most out of the new opportunities.
PSD2 is the necessary push that will make the banks start moving forward.�
MJR: If you ask the banks what they think about PSD2 you will hear that they are divided, even though they are all aware of the directive and know that it is a must. Many of the small and mediumsized banks are concerned about the compliance burden and the possible competition from the new third parties. But then there is the other category of banks that view PSD2 as an opportunity to take a leap into further digitisation and to open-up and become part of an open banking and open API reality. What do you think? Do the banks have reasons to be worried, or should they consider PSD2 almost as a helping hand? MV: PSD2 has been adopted and will be transposed into national law, and the idea is to create a different payment system than we have today. I think the
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MJR: I was actually just about to ask how you see developments in the fintech landscape at the moment? MV: First and foremost, the banks have an advantage because there is a lot of inertia regarding money and payments, and it is hard to make people think of anything but their bank when it comes to these things. But having said that, there is also a very fast and powerful development going on globally. Strong forces want to be part of the payments sector because it is such a big market.