PSD3 and PSR: How the EU’s new payment rules affect UK businesses

When PSD2 introduced Strong Customer Authentication, businesses across the UK and EU spent years adjusting checkout flows and recovering lost conversions. PSD3 and PSR, the EU’s replacements for PSD2, won’t apply in the UK directly. Even so, if you sell to EU customers, run EU entities or work with EU-licensed payment providers, the new rules are likely to reach your business.

That raises some practical questions. Will authentication change again? Who carries the cost when fraud happens? And if you run a platform or marketplace in the EU, can you keep relying on the commercial agent exemption?

To help answer some of those, this piece will cover:

• What is PSD3? The EU’s updated payments directive

• What is PSR? The EU regulation behind the new conduct rules

• PSD2 vs PSD3/PSR: What’s changing and what stays the same

• When PSD3 and PSR take effect

• What PSD3 and PSR change for businesses trading in the EU

• Platforms and marketplaces: The commercial agent exemption under review

• PSD3 compliance checklist for UK businesses

The EU Payment Services Directive 3 (PSD3) strengthens the licensing and supervision requirements for payment service providers and banks operating in the EU. It covers how these firms are authorised and overseen, how they safeguard customer funds, how they use agents and distributors, and how they operate across EU borders.

As an EU Directive, PSD3 won’t be transposed into UK law. UK businesses are most likely to feel its effects through EU-licensed payment providers or any EU entities they operate.

The EU Payment Services Regulation (PSR) will apply directly in every EU Member State, without needing to pass through national law. It sets the conduct rules for payment services, including how terms and conditions are presented, how Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) works, and the requirements for fraud prevention and data sharing.

Note: In the UK, PSR is also the abbreviation for the Payment Systems Regulator. In this article, PSR refers only to the EU’s Payment Services Regulation.

PSD2 vs PSD3/PSR: What’s changing and what stays the same

PSD3 and PSR bring the current regime up to date with how payments work today. The biggest structural change is that the rules are now split across two instruments:

• PSD3 stays a Directive, so each EU Member State still has to transpose it into national law.

• PSR is a Regulation, so it applies directly and in the same way across the EU. That gives individual countries less room to interpret the rules differently. PSR takes on the most significant reforms from PSD2 (payment authentication, liability and open banking) and adds several major changes of its own, which we cover below.

• 23 April 2026: The Council of the EU publishes the final compromise texts for PSD3 and PSR.

• 5 May 2026: The European Parliament’s ECON committee approves the texts.

• December 2026: Publication in the Official Journal is expected, starting the countdown to application:

  • Most rules apply 21 months after entry into force.

  • Verification of Payee provisions follow at 27 months.

• 2027 to 2028: Level 2 and Level 3 measures are developed and adopted.

With the substance of the rules now settled, here's what you need to know across six key areas, from authentication and fraud liability through to open banking, scheme fees, licensing and currency conversion.

1. Strong customer authentication (SCA): Mostly the same, although exemptions will tighten

In essence, SCA isn't going anywhere. You'll still need two of three categories (something you know, something you have, something you are) to authenticate a payment. The only key difference is that two biometric checks can now fulfil the requirement as well as two separate categories. Merchant-initiated transactions for recurring billing also stay as they are: One authentication check at setup, none on renewal and no unconditional refund right for consumers (unlike a direct debit payment).

The main differences in SCA are found in exemptions:

• The €50 contactless limit across the EU could rise (it's already £100 in the UK).

• Exemptions around mail order and telephone (MOTO) payments will continue, but regulation will be tightened.

• The transaction risk analysis exemption remains but its qualifying conditions could change.

PSD3 passkeys typically pair a device the customer holds with a biometric check on that device, which fits the two-category model SCA already uses. The new allowance for two biometric checks widens the options further. Whether a specific passkey flow qualifies as SCA will depend on the EBA's technical standards. In the meantime, Adyen Authenticate supports Google Secure Payment Authentication, Mastercard Payment Passkeys and Visa Payment Passkeys alongside 3DS, routing each transaction to the method most likely to succeed.

2. Fraud liability is more evenly spread across the payment ecosystem

PSD3 and PSR reshape who's liable when fraud happens, shifting more of the burden away from customers and spreading it across banks, schemes and technical providers. For example:

• Impersonation and spoofing fraud: PSR introduces an automatic refund right for some cases of impersonation or spoofing fraud, such as impersonating a bank employee to trick a customer into authorising a payment. In this case, liability sits with the customer's bank (provided the customer hasn't acted fraudulently or with gross negligence). UK readers may recognise this model. Since October 2024, UK payment providers have been required to reimburse most victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud, which includes impersonation scams.

• Liability across the payment chain:

  • Issuing banks can seek to recoup losses from acquirers, which increases the likelihood of chargebacks reaching businesses further down the chain.

  • Consequently, acquirers now face their own obligation to monitor transactions for fraud risk. In practice, that's likely to mean acquirers asking businesses to share more transaction data to support the assessment.

  • Card schemes, technical service providers such as wallet providers, and payment gateways can also be held liable if they fail to apply SCA correctly, protecting payers from technical failures and giving providers a clear incentive to maintain consistent quality of service.

• Verification of Payee: All bank-to-bank credit transfers must now be checked in advance to confirm the payee's name matches their account details. This is most relevant to businesses running payout flows such as platforms, marketplaces, investment platforms and insurers. The UK equivalent, Confirmation of Payee, has been in place since 2020, so UK businesses running payouts to EU accounts may already have similar checks built into their flows.

• PSD3 transaction monitoring: PSR requires PSPs to run risk-based monitoring of transactions and links a failure to monitor to refund outcomes. It also gives PSPs a clearer legal basis to share specified fraud-related data with each other, within GDPR safeguards. The technical detail will come from the EBA's standards, so expect acquirers to ask businesses for richer transaction data over time.

3. Open banking interfaces to be more open and reliable, improving trust and encouraging wider adoption

PSR's objective is to make the open banking ecosystem more open and transparent.

To get there, banks must build a reliable, dedicated connection that lets payment and account information providers act on a customer's behalf and publish how well that connection performs every quarter. If the connection goes down or works badly, providers can fall back on the bank's normal online banking system instead, so payments keep going through. If a business loses money because of a failure, it can claim damages under the usual civil law rules.

Banks are also required to offer consent dashboards, clearly showing customers which third parties have access to their account data, along with the ability to revoke that access at any time.

This gives customers real control over their data and builds trust, while more reliable interfaces make pay by bank a viable, cheaper alternative to card payments.

The UK runs its own open banking framework, so these requirements won't change how open banking works with UK bank accounts. They will apply when your customers pay from EU bank accounts.

4. More transparency around scheme fees, allowing acquirers to optimise costs on behalf of businesses

PSR strengthens transparency around card payment costs by requiring card scheme operators and processing entities to clearly define, unbundle and disclose all fees charged to acquirers in a standardised, comparable format.

Scheme fees must be broken down granularly, split into mandatory fees, fees linked to specific behaviours or technology use and fees for optional services, with explicit breakdowns by card category, sales channel, volume and geography.

Card schemes and processing entities must also give at least six months' notice of any fee changes before they take effect, and maintain a single, public EU repository detailing their scheme rules and fee schedules.

These transparency rules will be further detailed in a Delegated Regulation to be adopted by the European Commission, expected during 2027.

These updates are expected to give acquirers the insight to spot unexpected behavioural penalties, optimise payment routing and bring down card acceptance costs overall. For example, Adyen's platform helps businesses analyse scheme cost structures and automatically optimise transaction routing across domestic and international networks.

Learn more about how we can help you optimise your payment costs >

5. Payment and e-money institutions to be merged under a single, tighter regime

PSD2 regulates payment institutions and e-money institutions (EMIs) under separate licences, allowing e-money institutions to issue e-money and perform payment services, while payment institutions are only allowed to perform payment services.

PSD3 merges these licences under a single regime for payment institutions, with stronger requirements for payment institutions that issue e-money. This means that existing e-money and payment institutions must engage with supervisors to ensure compliance with the new authorisation requirements.

6. Cross-border transfers and currency conversion fees to be disclosed upfront

The PSD3 impact on cross-border fund transfers comes mainly through PSR, which requires PSPs to clearly disclose all currency conversion charges on credit transfers and money remittance transactions. The charge must be shown as a percentage mark-up over the European Central Bank's official FX rate before the transaction is initiated. Checkout flows and receipts must be updated to show these costs transparently, and the rules also tighten how Dynamic Currency Conversion charges are displayed at checkout.

Platforms and marketplaces that operate without a payments licence may need to reassess their regulatory operating model to stay compliant with PSR. Many platforms and marketplaces rely on the commercial agent exemption under PSD2 to offer payment services. However, under PSR, it is not certain that the commercial agent exemption will remain available for these business models.

PSR restates the two cumulative conditions for the exemption that applied under PSD2:

1. Only one side of the deal: The agreement must clearly state that the agent (the platform or marketplace) works for either the buyer or the seller, never both at once.

2. Real decision-making power: The agent must be able to negotiate or conclude the sale, not just process a payment for a sale that's already been made. For example, a travel agent who negotiates rates and puts together a package directly with hotels and airlines is exercising decision-making power over the deal.

While these conditions for the exemption existed under PSD2, PSD2 was a Directive, meaning each EU Member State took its own approach to implementing it into its national law. The result was different applications of the commercial agent exemption in practice. PSR's stated aim is to bring more consistency to the application of the exemption across the EU by formalising the conditions in a directly applicable Regulation. Additionally, PSR mandates the EBA to develop guidelines for national regulators on the application of the exemption.

It's not yet clear whether the commercial agent exemption will continue to be available for platforms and marketplaces that have relied on it under PSD2. Once the EBA guidelines on the exemption are published, platforms and marketplaces will need to assess their business models and determine if the exemption is still applicable.

Banking-as-a-service PSD3 changes for platforms

Banking-as-a-service changes arrive mainly through licensing, because e-money and payment institutions move under a single regime and existing institutions must apply under the new authorisation requirements. Safeguarding and governance rules are being aligned too. If you embed financial services through a banking-as-a-service partner, ask how it plans to re-authorise and what that means for the services you rely on.

How Adyen can help platforms and marketplaces stay compliant

If you don't meet both conditions set out above, you may need to become licensed as a payment institution, or work with a provider that already is, such as Adyen.

Our dedicated solution, Adyen for Platforms, lets you embed payments directly into your platform or marketplace. And, because we're a bank, we can hold buyer and seller funds directly in dedicated bank accounts under our own licence. That means one licensed platform for both payment processing and marketplace fund handling.

Even with formal adoption still pending, there are a few steps businesses can take now to ensure they’re ready when the Official Journal is published and the countdown begins:

• Map your EU exposure: Identify which parts of your business PSD3 and PSR will touch, such as EU customers, EU entities or EU-licensed payment providers. This shows where the new rules will apply and where UK rules continue to govern.

• Check your exemptions: Map what share of your EU transaction volume currently relies on an SCA exemption. This will determine how much any future change will impact your checkout flow.

• Platforms and marketplaces: Assess your licensing requirements: Once the EBA guidelines are published, reassess your business model in light of the updated conditions for the commercial agent exemption. If necessary, decide whether to become licensed or work with a provider that is.

• Get your voice heard: The EBA’s regulatory technical standards haven’t been written yet, so now’s a good moment to engage (either directly or through industry bodies) to make sure the details work in your favour.

If you’d like more information about how Adyen helps ensure its customers remain compliant with all major global regulations, get in touch.