Payments Association annual report: 2024 on accessibility and legislation

For Dutch Payments Association, the year 2024 was dominated by accessible banking and payments and various legislative processes. Last year, together with our members, we carried out many activities as part of the Accessible Banking programme. In addition, the implementation of the European Accessibility Act was prepared and many consultations took place on legislation to keep cash available, accessible and reachable. Other European legislation that was prepared in 2024 and will be finalised or implemented from 2025 should guide further digitalisation, such as the eIDAS 2.0 Regulation, the PSR Payment Services Regulation, the PSD3 Payment Services Directive and the IPR Instant Payment Regulation. Finally, a legal framework for a possible digital euro is also in preparation.

Accessible Banking

The Accessible Banking programme in 2024 focused, among other things, on simplifying and expanding telephone assistance, the follow-up pilot Bank Information Points, raising awareness among bank employees and more courses, information sessions and new practice materials.

At the end of May, we will announce the plans until 2030, based on the insights and experiences of the past two years.

Cash

In 2024, laws and regulations around cash money presented themselves, with potentially far-reaching consequences for entrepreneurs, banks and Geldmaat. The Payments Association and its members jointly responded to a public consultation on the proposed ‘Cash Act’.

Both Brussels and The Hague are pushing for an obligation for point-of-sale establishments to accept cash up to a certain maximum amount per payment always and everywhere. We therefore commissioned research into what costs such an obligation will entail.

European payments laws and regulations

From 2025, several new European laws and regulations for payments will be introduced that were prepared in 2024 and the years before. The Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) will come into force at the end of 2025 and includes the obligation for a Verification of Payee, a mandatory IBAN Name Check for euro transfers within SEPA. The Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and Payment Services Directive 3 (PSD3) will be the successors to PSD2 , expected in 2026. The eIDAS 2.0 Regulation regulates everything around digital identity cards in the EU. These should also be usable in digital banking from the end of 2027.

Around these new laws and regulations in 2024, the Payments Association contributed responses to public consultations. With meetings, working groups and task forces, we supported our members in their efforts to comply with the new laws.

All these topics and many other tasks and activities of the Payments Association in 2024 are covered in detail in our annual report.