Identifying the customer of a collecting PSP

In the case described by the submitter, to determine whether a payment service provider (PSP) has a business relationship with the payer, the PSP should refer to paragraph 18.8 a) of the ML/TF risk factor Guidelines (EBA/GL/2021/02) (the ‘guidelines’). Pursuant to paragraph 18.8 a) of the guidelines, in the specific case where a PSP acts as payment initiation service provider (PISP) and has a business relationship, within the meaning of Article 3(13) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 (the ‘AMLD’), with the payee for the provision of payment initiation services, and the payer only uses the PSP to initiate a single or one-off transaction to the payee, then the customer is the payee and not the payer. This is, however, without prejudice to Article 11 of the AMLD and Title I of the guidelines, especially with regards to occasional transactions. The fact that the PSP also provides other payment services to the payee is not mentioned in the guidelines as a criterion that should be taken into account to assess whether the PSP has a business relationship with the payer in relation to the payment initiation services provided by the PSP, provided that these other services do not affect the legal qualification of the payment initiation services offered to the payee. It is the PSP’s responsibility to assess whether the service provided to the payer qualifies as payment initiation services or as a different payment service. Therefore, where a PSP is in the specific case described in paragraph 18.8 a) of the guidelines, then the PSP should conclude that it has a business relationship with the payee and not with the payer in relation to the provision of the payment initiation services. This conclusion should not be affected by the fact that the PSP also provides other payment services (such as acquiring of payment transactions) to the payee.