Payments in 2026 #3 – PSD3

This year firms will start preparing for an overhaul of EU payments regulation.

Change on the horizon

Towards the end of 2025 the European Parliament and Council announced that they had agreed a new Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and a third Payment Services Directive (PSD3). The texts should become law around mid-2026.

The changes include applying verification of payee to all wire transfers. Currently only some firms need to run these checks for certain types of bank transfer under the Instant Payments Regulation. Firms may need to cover losses resulting from fraud if the verification mechanism fails.

There will be other new measures relating to fraud. For example, payment service providers will need to offer spending limits and blocking measures. A reimbursement requirement will apply to employee impersonation fraud.

Firms will need to respond to these and other wide-ranging changes under the reworked legislation. They must also keep an eye on additional standards and guidance from the European Banking Authority. The EBA anticipates that it will have around 40 mandates under the PSR and PSD3. It plans to start work on these in 2026.

Date for the diary: Q2 2026 – EBA to publish its roadmap on the implementation of the EU payment package.

This is the third in a series of blogposts looking at the outlook for payments regulation in the UK and EU. Read our Payments Outlook 2026 for more.