Payment Services Directive

The EU directive (2015/2366) that regulates payment services and payment service providers, mandating strong customer authentication, open banking through account access APIs (XS2A), and enhanced consumer protection. PSD2 has fundamentally reshaped the European payments landscape by requiring banks to provide licensed third parties with access to customer account data and payment initiation capabilities.

Firms that provide specialist knowledge-based services such as consulting, engineering, IT services, legal advisory, and financial analysis. KIBS firms are characterised by high intangible asset intensity, with the majority of their enterprise value derived from human capital, client relationships, proprietary methodologies, and reputation.

A regulatory and technological framework that enables third-party financial service providers to access consumer banking data through secure APIs, with the customer's explicit consent. In the UK, open banking was mandated by the CMA's Open Banking Remedy (2018) and is governed by the Open Banking Implementation Entity.

The end-to-end handling of electronic payment transactions from initiation through authorisation, clearing, and settlement. Payment processing involves multiple parties — merchants, payment gateways, acquiring banks, card networks, issuing banks, and payment processors — coordinating in real time to validate, authorise, and settle funds.

A technology service that authorises and processes electronic payment transactions between merchants and acquiring banks or payment processors. Payment gateways encrypt sensitive payment data, route transactions to the appropriate card networks, and return authorisation responses in real time.

The ability of different information technology systems, software applications, and data formats to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged effectively. Interoperability is a critical design requirement in open banking, healthcare IT, and enterprise software, and is increasingly mandated by regulation.

A mandatory conformity marking for products sold within the European Economic Area, indicating that the product meets EU health, safety, and environmental protection requirements. For medical devices, CE marking under the Medical Device Regulation (MDR 2017/745) requires conformity assessment by a Notified Body, clinical evaluation, and ongoing post-market surveillance.

An international regulatory framework developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision that sets minimum capital requirements, leverage ratios, and liquidity standards for banks. Basel III was introduced in response to the 2008 financial crisis and requires banks to hold higher-quality capital (primarily Common Equity Tier 1) against risk-weighted assets, including operational risk and market risk.