More effective control over the payment services

Several amendments to the Payment Services and Payment Systems Act entered into force on February 14th 2020. The aim of these amendment is to implement the EU legislation on payment services and to ensure the effective control over the payment services providers. 

The amendments concern:  

• The procedure for registration of payment service providers with the Register maintained by the Bulgarian National Bank (“BNB”);   
• The requirements for granting a license to payment institutions;  
• The possibilities for ex post control over the holders of less than 10 % of the share capital of a payment services provider;  
• The elements included in the common equity of payment institutions; 
• The rules for the IBAN of payment accounts and for avoidance of exchange rate differences;  
• The exceptions from the obligation for strong customer authentication of payers;  
•  The amounts of the fines for infringements of this act and the procedure for imposing them.