March 14, an important PSD2 milestone but what if banks miss it?

Today is an exciting day in most of the European banks as on this day they have to make a sandbox available to third party providers to start testing the banks' dedicated interface, for example an API. This sandbox should be as close to production environment as possible. We see bigger banks building this in house while smaller ones outsourced this to companies offering compliance. 

But what if they don't make it in time?

Fallback interface

Banks providing a PSD2 dedicated interface should offer a "fallback interface" in case the dedicated interface is not compliant with legal requirements. In order to be exempted from providing a fallback there are certain conditions to be met: 

• The dedicated interface should already be available for testing at least 6 months before September 14, so starting March 14!
• The dedicated interface has been widely used for at least 3 months. They should apply for the exemption before June 14 which means starting on March 14!

Implementing the fallback will mean they have to maintain multiple interfaces. On top of this, sharing bank credentials with the TPP also brings security risks. Let's wait and see which banks will be ready today!