According to a September 19 post on X (formerly Twitter), Director of E.U. Strategy and Policy at Circle, Patrick Hansen, stated the planned review of the E.U. ‘s payment rules would significantly benefit stablecoins, granting issuers access to the central bank payment systems.
The Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and a Payment Services Regulation (PSR) were initially proposed for the review E.U. payment regulations on June 28. The proposal aims to regulate electronic payments and the banking ecosystem in the European Union’s single market.
https://twitter.com/paddi_hansen/status/1704065579919778099?s=46&t=aw6ZR-6aD050XLPVXY8AQA
Eric Ducoulombier, Head of the DG FISMA Unit at the European Commission, described the proposals as transformative for the payments sector during his discussion on the review
Ducoulombier highlighted several benefits of the review, including:
“The modification of the Settlement Finality Directive (SFD) to enable non-banks to access payment systems We also propose remedies to the recurring ‘de-risking’ problem faced by some Payment Institutions (PIs) and E-money Institutions (EMIs), which should substantially improve their capacity to open and maintain bank accounts.”
And
“Explicitly recognize the possibility for a self-regulatory market space to exist in addition to the regulated sphere. This is a particularly important acknowledgment of ongoing initiatives such as the SEPA Payment Account Access (SPAA) scheme, in which the European Payments Council (EPC) is playing a leading role.”
According to Hansen, the proposed review would allow stablecoin issuers easier access to open bank accounts. He added that the review was a positive development to enhance competition in the E.U. payment sector.
“Stablecoin (EMT) issuers will be able to access central bank payment systems, safeguard funds with the central bank, and should have less trouble opening bank accounts.”
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that make an effort to peg their market value to some external reference. These assets have come under intense scrutiny following Terra’s algorithmic UST stablecoin collapse last year. Following this, governments in various jurisdictions introduced new regulations to control the industry and stop occurrences of this kind in the future. Despite this, CryptoSlate reported that fiat-backed stablecoins eclipsed Mastercard and PayPal in moving more value across their networks.
