EU Reaches Compromise On PSD3 And PSR: Tighter Harmonisation, Crypto Rules And Stronger Consumer Transparency

On 24 April 2026, the Council of the EU published final compromise texts for the proposed Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and Payment Services Regulation (PSR). The release of the final texts gives the market greater clarity on the future EU payments framework and marks a major step toward a more harmonised, transparent and crypto-aware regime for payment services.

The package centres on PSD3, which is intended to repeal and replace PSD2, together with linked changes under the PSR. In practical terms, it moves many conduct-of-business rules into a directly applicable Regulation, aligns electronic-money and payment conduct rules, narrows scope exclusions, and introduces new measures on cash access, currency-conversion disclosure, strong customer authentication, fraud liability and crypto-related payment activities.