Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 (revised Payment Services Directive or PSD2) was published with the purpose of updating the regulatory framework for payment services and to promote greater European integration in this field. Although maintaining the substance of the regulatory framework adopted in Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007, this Directive introduced relevant amendments to the regulatory framework governing payment services.

The PSD2 was transposed into Portuguese law by Decree-Law No 91/2018 of 12 November 2018. This Decree-Law governs the provision of payment services in Portugal and significantly alters how payment service providers make their services available and how customers (individuals, enterprises and general government) make payment transactions.

Under this legislation, users are given the possibility of using two new payment services – Payment Initiation Services (PIS) and Account Information Services (AIS). Users also benefit from increased security conditions for the execution of payment transactions through the application of strong customer authentication mechanisms.

The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389 of 27 November 2017 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 13 March 2018 to supplement the PSD2. This Regulation establishes the regulatory technical standards for strong customer authentication and common and secure open standards of communication to be observed by payment service providers.