Directive 2009/110 - Taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 267/7

Directive 2000/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on the taking up, pursuit of and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions (4) was adopted in response to the emergence of new pre-paid electronic payment products and was intended to create a clear legal framework designed to strengthen the internal market while ensuring an adequate level of prudential supervision.

In its review of Directive 2000/46/EC the Commission highlighted the need to revise that Directive since some of its provisions were considered to have hindered the emergence of a true single market for electronic money services and the development of such user-friendly services.

Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market (5) has established a modern and coherent legal framework for payment services, including the coordination of national provisions on prudential requirements for a new category of payment service providers, namely payment institutions.

With the objective of removing barriers to market entry and facilitating the taking up and pursuit of the business of electronic money issuance, the rules to which electronic money institutions are subject need to be reviewed so as to ensure a level playing field for all payment services providers.

It is appropriate to limit the application of this Directive to payment service providers that issue electronic money. This Directive should not apply to monetary value stored on specific pre-paid instruments, designed to address precise needs that can be used only in a limited way, because they allow the electronic money holder to purchase goods or services only in the premises of the electronic money issuer or within a limited network of service providers under direct commercial agreement with a professional issuer, or because they can be used only to acquire a limited range of goods or services. An instrument should be considered to be used within such a limited network if it can be used only either for the purchase of goods and services in a specific store or chain of stores, or for a limited range of goods or services, regardless of the geographical location of the point of sale. Such instruments could include store cards, petrol cards, membership cards, public transport cards, meal vouchers or vouchers for services (such as vouchers for childcare, or vouchers for social or services schemes which subsidise the employment of staff to carry out household tasks such as cleaning, ironing or gardening), which are sometimes subject to a specific tax or labour legal framework designed to promote the use of such instruments to meet the objectives laid down in social legislation. Where such a specific-purpose instrument develops into a general-purpose instrument, the exemption from the scope of this Directive should no longer apply. Instruments...