Payments in Europe

欧洲境内的支付

Leveling the paying field

规范支付行业

New European payments regulation has the potential to shake up2 the banks

欧洲新出炉了支付规则 有望让各行发生巨变

IN BRITAIN alone millions of people make formal complaints each year about their banks. For them, Sebastian Siemi at kowski, founder of Klarna, a Swedish payments startup, brings good news. New European rules, he says, will open the door to a host of innovative services that analyse transactions, so “an app could tell you there’s a cheaper mortgage available and start the switching process for you.” Apps could warn account-holders if they spend more than a predetermined amount or are about to become overdrawn, or even nudge them to save more. Customers need barely ever interact with their bank.

每年仅在英国就有数百万人日常性地总会抱怨当地银行的服务。瑞士一家创业公司，也是一家支付公司Klarna，给这批英国人带来了好消息。他提到,欧洲这项新规定,将开放式地接纳对大批量分析交易的改革服务，所以‘某个应用会告诉你，即符合一项低利率房贷的资格，从而能为您提供相应服务’顾客都不需要到银行去办理业务，因为银行的应用能提醒持卡人 ，卡内消费超过了预先规定的数额，或者说该卡即将透支，或者推出信息提醒他们需要存钱了。

To date, despite dire warnings, European retail banking has been remarkably unscathed by technology-driven disruption. Customers stay loyal, and banks still do the most of the lending. Financial-technology (“fintech”) companies are beginning to mount a challenge, most conspicuously in the online-payments industry in northern Europe: So fort, i DEAL and otherfintech firms conduct over half of online transactions in Germany and the Netherlands, for example. But their reach is more limited elsewhere in Europe. Physical payments are still overwhelmingly made with cash or bank cards.

尽管紧急的警告，时至今日，欧洲零售银行并没受到科技进步带来的影响。客户仍保持对银行保持支持，而银行仍旧提供并维持大部分接待的服务。金融科技公司正撸起袖子，发动这一项挑战。这项挑战，在北欧在线支付业中凸显出来。一些金融科技公司，例如莱卡So fort, 创而有意i DEAL等，在德国和芬兰大半部分业务都在线交易。但是他们的业务操作对于欧洲市场来收受到了局限。因为实物支付仍旧大力支持现金或者银行卡。

One reason incumbents have proved so resilient is that fintech firms lack the customer- transaction information they need to provide many financial services. Banks can be slow to respond to requests for access to such data, or may block them altogether for security reasons. It is often either cumbersome or insecure for customers to share their own information. Banks, on the other hand, have easy access to transaction data, which they can use to sell their customers other services.

现任负责人也摆出了不能迅速适应的一个原因。金融科技公司手上急缺他们所需的客户交易信息。而这个交易信息有需要他们提供许多的金融服务才能获得。银行并会随便地提供这些数据，或者说处于安全原因封锁数据。之所以，不会轻易地分享客户信息，是因为工作量繁琐，而且存在安全隐患。换句话说，银行倒是容易拿到交易数据，这样他们就能加以利用数据，卖给客户其他服务。

Regulators, however, are about to transform the landscape. The Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD2), due to be implemented by EU members in January 2018, aims to kick-start competition while making payments more secure. Provided the customer has given explicit consent, banks will be forced to share customer-account information with licensed financial-services providers.This should change the way payment services work. They could become more integrated into the internet-browsing experience—enabling, for example, one-click bank transfers, at least for low-value payments. Security for payments above €30 ($32) will be tightened up, with customers having to provide two pieces of secret information (“strong authentication”) to wave through a transaction.

可是，银行监管部门将着手扭转局面。2018年1月欧盟将颁布的支付服务指令。这项指令旨在在支付更安全情况下，快速启动支付手段的竞争。在客户明确同意的情况下，银行终将会跟获有金融服务许可的供应商分享客户信息。这种方法，应该会改变支付操作方式。银行能更能集中地提供服务，例如上网可见，又能操作的一键银行转账，至少针对了小额支付的情况。30欧元以上的支付安全升级，即客户需要提供两种安全验证（强有力的认证）确保交易。

With access to account data, meanwhile, fintech firms could offer customers budgeting advice, or guide them towards higher-interest savings accounts or cheaper mortgages. Those with limited credit histories may find it easier to borrow, too,since richer transaction data should mean more sophisticated credit checks.

同时，金融公司能根据账目数据，给客户提供借贷咨询，或者提供高利息存钱方案或者低利率房贷方法。即便那些信用记录较低的用户，也能轻松借钱，因为庞大的交易数据要进行更加复杂的信用认可的确认。

None of this is good news for established banks. Profitability is already threatened by rock-bottom interest rates. According to Deloitte, a consultancy, banks’ lockhold on payments serves as a hand source of income, earning European banks €128bn in 2015, around a quarter of retail banking revenue. Many see PSD2 as a threat to their business models; they fear becoming the “dumb pipes” of the financial system. Ina survey conducted last year by Strategy&, a unit of PwC, a professional services firm, 68% of responding banks believed that PDS2 would leave them in a weaker position. The same proportion feared that they would lose control of interactions with customers.

然而，这些好消息到了老牌银行那里却算不上好。利润已受到了超低利率的威胁。根据一家咨询公司Deloitte的说法，银行利用数据库的共享锁支付服务，给银行带来了收入。2015年这项服务给欧洲银行挣了1280亿欧元，相当于零售银行营业额的四分之一。许多人把PSD2当做威胁银行业务模式的一种威胁。他们担心金融系统会变成‘笨水管’商业模式。去年一家专业服务公司-Strategy&, 也是普华永道咨询公司旗下某个单位。他们调查出来68%银行回复的内容是，PDS2条款会让他们陷入到不利的境地。同样比例的回复也提到他们不能管控客户间的往来而感到恐慌。

Dumb pipes

对一家移动通信业者来说，笨水管（dumb pipe），或笨网络(dumb network）一词指一家业者的网络只用于在用户的设备与互联网之间传输比特。“笨”这个字的意思是指业者无法限制服务及应用通过其门户，而主要只会提供简单的带宽与连接速率。

移动通信业者常见的商业模型有笨水管、智能水管及围墙内的花园3种。

Perhaps predictably, resistance is manifested as a concern about data protection: more than half of respondents to the PwC survey voiced concerns about security and liability. Such concerns are legitimate but also, argue fintech supporters, offer a convenient excuse for banks to block competition. Newcomers will be regulated, after all, and will have to convince the authorities that their data-protection systems are robust. As they are also required to be insured against losses from fraud, they will need to convince insurers, too. They will not be subject to the same capital and stress-testing requirements banks face: but nor will they be licensed to undertake the riskier business of lending.

也许可以预见的是，很明显，一旦考虑到数据保护问题，银行就表现出明显的抵抗。pwc咨询公司调查出来，超过一半的回复都表明，对这种做法的安全表示担心，出了问题谁来承担责任。这种担心同样也是情理之中。支持金融科技的人也提到，他们会给银行提供一个恰当的由头避免碰壁。必定后来者需要规范起来，因为要让监管当局相信，他们的数据保护系统是健全的。同时，当他们需要对被骗后的损失理赔时，他们也需要要说服保险公司进行赔偿。尽管不能得到同等额度的赔偿，所以银行也需要面临更多的压力测试。然而，即便是在交易许可下，银行也不会铤而走险地进行借贷服务。

For his part, Klarna’s Mr Siemiat kowski thinks PSD2 is “perfect on paper”. But he worries that, as implementation approaches, the rules will be watered down. Banks could also interpret them subjectively: they might delay sharing data or make them too confusing to be useful. But regulators have already bared their teeth: last year German competition authorities, citing the changes proposed in PSD2, ruled that banks were illegally restricting customers’ online-banking activities.

对于这部分，klarna公司的simiat先生认为，PSD2条约是‘纸上谈兵，操作困难’。但是他担心，当该条约实施起来时，这些条条框框的作用将会缩水。本质上说，银行也能解释清楚这些条款。可是他们也许延迟数据分享，或者使用起来让人迷惑不解。但是，监督部门已经亮出了黄牌：去年德国竞争监管部门提到了PSD2中的变化内容，即银行限制客户网上银行交易属于非法行为。

Hot data

炽手可热的数据

Banks will have to improve, in other words. Several incumbents are already adapting to the reality of the fintech challenge through partnerships and purchases. Santander’s British arm, for instance, has teamed up with Kabbage, an American startup, to offer small companies working capital loans; BBVA, a Spanish bank, acquired Holvi, a Finnish startup that helps companies track cash flow and invoices.

换言之，银行急需改革。金融科技公司挑起了合作和采购竞争，欧洲几家银行现已适应这种竞争环境。例如，英国桑坦德银行和美国一家创业公司kabbage合作，他们专门给小型公司贷款。西班牙一家银行BBVA，也收购了芬兰一家帮助公司追回现金和发票的创业公司。

Yet for all their complaints, customers still trust banks with their money. In Britain only 3% of customers move current accounts each year. Familiarity, huge customer bases and low funding costs are all attributes entrants want to gain by association, just as banks want to exploit newcomers’ technology. PSD2 will improve the services available to European bank customers. Whether via co-operation or confrontation is the question.

尽管客户有几句怨言，但是他们仍相信银行能保管好自己的财富。在英国，每年仅30%客户会申请转户。类似的，大型客户数据和低廉资本成本，都表现了初入茅庐者希望通过联合的方式从中分一杯羹，就像银行利用新进者的技术一个道理。psd2将尽其所能为欧洲银行客户们提高服务质量。不论是通过采取合作的方式，还是通过采取对立方式，现在来看，都成问题。