Decision Making Committees

Enforcing regulatory and competition law We may take enforcement action for failure to comply with directions given or requirements imposed under FSBRA or failures to comply with the provisions of other legislation such as the IFR or PSD2. We may also take enforcement action for failure to comply with the Competition Act 1998 and Articles 101/102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Certain decisions relating to these enforcement actions may need to be taken by the Enforcement Decisions Committee or the Competition Decisions Committee. Document our enforcement decisions Explain the purpose of the Enforcement Decisions Committee and the Competition Decisions Committee and how they work Provide further information about their membership You can find out more about our enforcement decisions on our Enforcement cases page . The Enforcement Decisions Committee, or EDC, is a committee of the Board . Its purpose is to take regulatory enforcement decisions for the PSR when a settlement cannot be reached. The EDC currently has a pool of ten members, including the Chair and several Deputy Chairs, from which three-person panels can be drawn to consider cases. Members of the EDC may be called upon to act as Settlement Decision Makers in enforcement cases. In the event that settlement is not reached, any EDC member who has acted as a Settlement Decision Maker is then be precluded from membership of the EDC panel considering the case. From time to time, when standards fall below what we expect, we may take enforcement action against a payment systems participant that has failed to comply with relevant legal requirements. Where we have found that there is a compliance failure, and we consider that it should be sanctioned, but settlement (if appropriate in the circumstances of the particular case) cannot be reached, we will make a referral to the EDC. The EDC will determine whether to issue a warning notice in relation to the compliance failure and the appropriate sanction to be imposed. The payment systems participant has the opportunity to make representations to the EDC about the warning notice and proposed sanction. Having considered any representations, the EDC will determine whether to issue a decision notice, in which it will set out its decision in relation to the compliance failure and appropriate sanction. The sanction may be to publish details of the compliance failure and/or impose a financial penalty. While it is a committee of the Board, the EDC is separate from staff at the PSR who have investigated whether a compliance failure has occurred. The purpose of the Competition Decisions Committee, or CDC, is linked to the competition powers we have under the Competition Act 1998 (CA98) and under Articles 101/102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The CDC currently has seven members from which three-person panels can be drawn. If we think that the behaviour of one or more parties in payment systems amounts to a breach of the CA98 (or the corresponding EU law provisions), we will issue a Statement of Objections. Once a Statement of Objections has been issued, the CDC will consider whether or not the party or parties have breached the CA98. The party or parties who are addressees of any Statement of Objections will have an opportunity to make representations to the CDC. If, having considered the addressees’ representations on the Statement of Objections, the CDC is minded to reach an infringement decision and impose a penalty, we will provide the parties with a draft penalty statement. The CDC will have the final say whether an infringement decision is adopted, and whether any financial penalty and/or any directions are imposed on the party or parties concerned. So, in summary, the CDC is a group of experts appointed to act as the decision-maker on whether, based on the facts and evidence before it, the legal test for establishing an infringement of competition law has been met and, where a

Source: Original reporting via Payment Systems Regulator