A guide: payment services

  1. Payment Introduction
  2. Information requirements
  3. Framework Contract
  4. Transaction Timing
  5. Processing of payment transactions
  6. Glossary

Introduction

This Consumer Guide has been produced in order to help consumers understand payment services and the different aspects related to this type of business.

This Consumer Guide is not exhaustive, and is intended to provide guidance and direction only.

What the Payment Services Regulations mean for Consumers

  • The same rules all over Europe
  • Clearer and more information on payments
  • Clearer terms and conditions
  • Faster payments
  • A wider choice of payment services and providers

The Payment Services Directive (2007/64/EC) became law in Gibraltar via the Financial Services (EEA) (Payments Services) Regulations 2010 (“the Payment Services Regulations”). The Payment Services Regulations ensure that the rules are the same for all consumers across 30 European countries (the European Union1 plus, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). This means that when carrying out an electronic payment, i.e. paying by debit card or transferring money to another payment account, the same rules apply throughout Europe, and therefore making a payment transaction in any of the European countries listed above, should be as easy as making it in Gibraltar.

The Payment Services Regulations cover all types of electronic and non-cash payments – credit transfers, card payments (including credit card payments), direct debits; standing orders, money remittance, mobile payments, and online payments.

The Payment Services Regulations do NOT cover cash and cheque payments.

The Payment Services Regulations apply to Euro payments as well as to payments in other European currency such as the Gibraltar Pound; UK Pound Sterling; Norwegian Krone and the Polish Zloty. The payments and transactions are covered by the Payment Services Regulations provided that the payment service provider for both the payer and the payee are located in one of the 30 Countries referred to above.

1Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Do my customer rights apply to payments outside the EEA?

Most rights only apply to transactions where the payment service providers of both you and the payee are located in one of the 30 European countries, and where the payment transactions are in Euro, or in the currency of a Member State that has not adopted the Euro, for example, Sterling.

Transactions where either the payee or your payment service provider is based outside the EU are known as ‘one-leg transactions’ and are not subject to the Payment Services Regulations. So, for example, if your payment services provider is based in Gibraltar and one of the payees is in the USA, the Payment Services Regulations do not apply.