New Frontiers in Payment Services: The Payment Initiation Service in the Directive 2015/2366/EU

The chapter will explore issues related to the Payment Initiation Service, currently subject to Directive 2015/2366/EU (Payment Services Directive II, PSD2) and, in Italy, to the Law Decree n. 11 of January 27th, 2010. It plays a relevant part in e-commerce payments establishing a software bridge between the website of the merchant and the online banking platform of the payer’s account servicing payment service provider in order to initiate internet payments on the basis of a credit transfer. The transaction involves many actors, including some new entrants into the payment service market, such as third-party providers (TTPs). The chapter will deal with the nature of relations between payment service users and payment initiation service providers as well as those between the latter and account servicing payment service providers. It will also address criteria to allocate liability when a transaction initiated through a PISP was unauthorized, non-executed, or wrongfully or lately executed.