KNF position on the EBA guidelines on outsourcing of payment services
On September 16, 2019, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) published it’s position on selected issues related to the EBA Guidelines (EBA/GL/2019/02) on outsourcing, which entered into force on September 30, 2019. Although the position is addressed primarily to banks, since it refers to the question of the permissible scope of delegation of banking activities within the meaning of the Banking Law Act of August 29, 1997, it is desirable, in the opinion of the KNF, that payment institutions – as it were, by analogy – take into account the position of the KNF in the scope in which they may be affected.
In accordance with EBA guidelines, outsourcing means a contract in any form concluded between a credit institution, a payment institution or an electronic money institution and a service provider under which the service provider performs a process, a service or a task which would otherwise be performed by the credit institution, a payment institution or an electronic money institution itself. This should not be treated as outsourcing:
a. a function which is required to be performed by law by the service provider, e.g. statutory audit;
b. market Information Services (e.g. Bloomberg, Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, Fitch);
c. global network infrastructure (e.g. Visa, MasterCard);
d. clearing systems and settlement systems between clearing houses, CCPs and clearing institutions and their members;
e. a global financial communication infrastructure under the supervision of competent authorities;
f. correspondent banking services; and
g. the purchase of services that would not otherwise be carried out by a credit institution or payment institution (e.g. architect’s advice, legal advice and representation in court and administrative bodies, cleaning, gardening and maintenance of the institution’s or payment institution’s premises, medical services, car servicing business, catering, services related to vending machines, office services, tourist services, postal services, services related to reception, secretary or central office), goods (e.g. plastic cards, card readers, office goods, personal computers, furniture) or media (e.g. electricity, gas, water, telephone line).
KNF expects supervised entities to comply with EBA guidelines by June 30, 2020 at the latest.
We invite you to contact our Law Firm, which offers services such as:
- representation in front of KNF,
- legal design of the systems of strong customer authentication used by payment services providers.
DKP Legal
