Alert on SMS giving & a proposed regulation on payment services

Pauline Hery, public affairs officer at France générosités, provides an update on a proposal on payment services in the European international market and work to protect SMS donations.

On February 14, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament adopted the proposal for a regulation 2023/0210(COD) on payment services in the European international market. This proposal aims to review the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in order to improve its functioning. The proposed Regulation lays down rules applicable to payment services providers related to payments.

The European Fundraising Association (EFA) through its members, mobilized European MPs in France and Ireland to urge them to maintain, as in the PSD2, the exemption of payment transactions by a provider of electronic communications to a subscriber to make a charitable donation. Indeed, the deletion of these provisions in the draft regulation, bringing SMS donations within the scope of the regulation, would have consequences for consumers (loss of a simple and secure means of payment), for beneficiary organisations (a considerable loss of resources) and for operator (obligation to create a new entity registered as a payment institution).

Consequently, the proposed regulation adopted by the Committee, provides an exemption for:

• Payment transactions consisting of the non-professional cash collection and delivery within the framework of a nonprofit or charitable activity (article 2, par. 2, point. c)
• Payment transactions by a provider of electronic communications to a subscriber performed from or via an electronic device and charged to the related bill to purchase charitable donations (article 2, par. 2, point. k). It will only apply when the value of payment exceeds 60 euros or the cumulative value of payment transactions for an individual subscriber exceeds 360 euros per month. This constitutes an improvement, compared to DSP II, which threshold were limited to 50 euros per payment and 300 euros per month.

These exemptions ease the burden on nonprofit organisations that collect charitable donations and contributes to the generosity of the public. The donations through SMS represents a growing resource for NGOs due to the number of humanitarian crises that call for urgent donations.

The Committee having given its opinion, the proposal must now be adopted in plenary session by the European Parliament and by the Council.

If you have insight or numbers on SMS giving in your country, please send them to news@efa-net.eu.

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