The Payment Services Directive, which comes into force in November 2009, will lead to companies needing to reach new “framework agreements” with their banks. Treasurers have a mountain of detail to master in a short time – especially as the PSD will affect all subsidiaries throughout the European Economic Area.
The PSD covers all electronic payment services (however the payment services provider is instructed) and will apply to all EEA currencies (unlike SEPA which relates to the Euro only). It also limits the maximum cycle time for cash and cheque payments.
There are many benefits for corporates in creating more certainty and transparency on the maximum time cycle for payments (including cash and cheques), on value dating and on charging, for example. Some of the features of the PSD may be opted out of by the customer (not the bank) and some are a minimum service level, not optable out of.
A brief introduction was published in The Treasurer in 2008, with more detail about (corporate) framework contracts and the opt outs in The Treasurer’s Summer 2009 Cash Management Supplement at page 12 (page 13 of the .pdf file) which is available here
