Will the EU PSD2 directive require banks to create APIs available to their customers?

Question

All materials I can find use the term third party providers to describe entities that will use the open APIs that banks will be required to create, and supposedly these providers will still have to get licenses for operation. But will PSD2 also require banks to have APIs available directly to their customers? As in, will I be able to access my own accounts' data through these APIs?

Answer 1

The whole system is designed for commercial providers, not for individuals to directly access their own account information.

In particular, to be an "Account Information Service Provider", you would need Professional Indemnity Insurance or a comparable guarantee, as specified in Article 5, paragraph 2 of PSD2. It's unlikely an individual could get that.

You would also need to provide a business plan, security policy and risk assessments (Article 5, paragraph 1).

Finally, though I can't find any details of this in the directive itself, national regulators seem to charge fees to register with them. For example in the UK, to become a "Registered Account Information Service Provider" it costs £1500, and then there are annual fees after that.

Separately, the "right to data portability" that will kick in in May 2018 under the EU General Data Protection Regulation may be of some use: it allows you to ask for any personal information you have provided under a contract in machine readable form. It's not entirely clear how this will be interpreted in practice and whether all your transaction data would be covered or not.

Answer 2

Nope. It is not meant for individual use. However it is possible that some 3rd party providers may offer their own API as product to individuals.