The Payment Services Regulation (PSR) is a planned EU-wide regulation governing payment services and payment processes. It will replace parts of the previous Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and is intended to ensure uniform, binding rules for cashless payments within the European Union.
The aim of the PSR is to improve consumer protection, security, and transparency in card payments, online payments, and other electronic payment methods, as well as to strengthen competition between payment service providers.
The Payment Services Regulation (PSR) is often confused with the already applicable Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). The reason: both sets of regulations concern the same subject matter, and in terms of content, the PSR ties in with many well-known provisions of PSD2.
Key differences:
PSD2 is an EU directive that had to be implemented nationally by the individual member states. This led to different interpretations and practical applications in the EU countries. PSR is an EU regulation and will apply directly and uniformly in all member states in the future – without any national leeway.
PSR replaces key parts of PSD2 and is supplemented by PSD3. The aim is to make payment transactions within the EU clearer, more secure, and more legally certain.
Significance for the hotel industry:
Hotels are already familiar with many of the regulations from PSD2 (e.g., strong customer authentication). What is new is the EU-wide standardization and the explicit clarification that merchant-initiated transactions (MIT) – such as no-show or cancellation fees – remain permissible.
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