Part of the first session at EBA Day focused on the new entrants to the market, E-Money Institutions (EMI) and Payment Institutions (PI), facilitated by the introduction of the EU Payment Services Directive (PSD) and E-Money Directive.
With both directives encouraging competition and opening up the markets to new entrants it is not surprising to learn that according to research conducted by M3 Management Consulting there are around 350 EMI's & PIs with around 20% (65 companies) new companies
offering innovative approaches.
More than 50% are registered in the UK indicating that once again London is leading the way. The most popular services being foreign exchange and money remittance services followed by prepaid cards and payment handling.
With the likes of paypal and amazon getting in on the act the banks will need to up their game to stay ahead of the new competition emerging.