AI & Technology 27 Jul 2026 7 min read

PSD3 and FIDA: what's next for Open Banking

The directive that opened up your bank data has a successor. In November 2025, Europe struck a political deal on new payments rules — and is now negotiating the next step: extending data sharing to savings, insurance and pensions. Here's what changes, when it changes, and what you should demand along the way.

Open Banking
PSD3
FIDA
Open Finance
Regulation

There's a quiet revolution under way in how money moves across Europe — and most people have never read a line of it. It's called payments regulation. PSD2, in force since 2018, forced banks in Portugal and across the EU to open account data to services authorised by the customer, and brought in the strong authentication you now use without thinking twice. The result is plain to see: according to the European Commission, electronic payments in the EU reached €240 trillion in value in 2021, up from €184.2 trillion in 2017 [1].

But the world PSD2 regulated no longer exists. Payments have become instant, phones have replaced wallets — and fraud has turned professional. The joint report from the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Central Bank, published in December 2025, puts a number on the problem: €4.2 billion lost to fraud on the main payment instruments in 2024, up from €3.5 billion in 2023 [4]. The same report confirms that strong authentication works — transactions verified with it were, overall, less exposed to fraud, especially with cards — but notes that fraudsters have adapted: they target the exceptions and, increasingly, manipulate the person themselves into authorising the transfer [4].

It was for this world that the European Commission designed, on 28 June 2023, a legislative package with three parts: PSD3 (the third Payment Services Directive), the PSR (a Payment Services Regulation, directly applicable in every member state) and FIDA (a framework for financial data access) [1]. Mairead McGuinness, then Commissioner for Financial Services, summed up the ambition: "Today we are putting the best interests of citizens and consumers at the heart of financial services" (free translation) [1].

PSD3 and PSR: what was agreed

On 27 November 2025, the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on PSD3 and the PSR [2]. The text was approved by the parliamentary committee (ECON) on 5 May 2026 and is close to formal adoption [3]. In practice, for anyone paying or receiving money in Portugal:

Payee verification everywhere. Confirmation that the IBAN matches the name of the person receiving the money — mandatory since October 2025 for instant euro transfers — will be extended to standard transfers. The classic "I mistyped a digit" and the "swapped IBAN" scam become much harder to pull off [2].
Refunds for impersonation fraud. When a fraudster poses as the bank and the victim files a police complaint, the payment service provider will have to cover the losses under certain conditions [3].
Anti-fraud information sharing between payment providers — fraud patterns stop dying inside each individual bank [1][2].
The right to human support. The agreement enshrines the customer's right to talk to a person — not just a chatbot [3].
Open banking with better infrastructure: more reliable dedicated interfaces and dashboards where you see and revoke the permissions you've granted [1].

The timeline: publication in the Official Journal is expected in the coming months, with most of the new rules applying about 21 months after that — pointing to 2028 [3].

FIDA: from open banking to open finance

The third piece is the most ambitious — and the one still on the negotiating table. FIDA (the Framework for Financial Data Access) extends the PSD2 principle beyond the narrow world of payment accounts to almost your entire financial life: savings, investments, insurance, pensions and credit data [1]. With two central safeguards: sharing only happens with your permission, and you get a single dashboard where you see who accesses what — and cut off access whenever you want [1].

Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, explained the logic at the launch of the package: "More sharing of personal data, while retaining full control over it, will allow people to access tailored products and services that suit their needs" [1]. The word holding up that sentence is "control": without it, open finance would just be another data-extraction channel.

Unlike PSD3, FIDA isn't settled yet: trilogues between Parliament, Council and Commission started in April 2025 and are ongoing, with debate over the exact scope of the data covered; application is expected to be phased in, with the first data-sharing schemes from 2027–2030 [3]. But the direction is unmistakable — and it's good news for you.

From open banking to open finance: payment accounts, savings, insurance and pensions linked to the user's permissions dashboard

What this means for your tools

Portugal arrives at this turning point with habits already transformed. According to the Banco de Portugal's Relatório dos Sistemas de Pagamentos 2025 (Payment Systems Report 2025), instant transfers in Portugal ran at 17 times the volume of the year before; by the fourth quarter, they already accounted for 70% of all transfers — more than double the European Union average, which stood at 33.7% [5][6]. Money now moves in seconds. The question is no longer "when does the payment arrive?" but "who sees the full picture?"

This is where financial management apps come in — as a category. Open banking gave them access to payment accounts; open finance will let them see savings, insurance and pensions too. A tool like this will stop showing you just your statement and start showing you your net worth. But there's a serious trade-off: the more data flows, the more it matters who receives it, for what, and under what business model. Regulation handles the plumbing; trust gets decided app by app.

How AtivaMoney is preparing

AtivaMoney was designed for the world these rules are building — not against it. The philosophy is privacy-first: your financial data is yours, and our business model is your subscription, not reselling your profile. That translates into concrete choices in the face of PSD3 and FIDA:

Explicit permissions, always. You connect whatever you want, whenever you want — and the FIDA permissions-dashboard principle is already our practice: you see what's connected and cut it off whenever you decide.
Ready for the expansion. AtivaMoney's architecture organises accounts, categories and goals in a way that's agnostic to where the data comes from — when open finance schemes open up savings, insurance and pensions, your full picture already has a home. It's roadmap, not empty promise: it will arrive in phases, just like the regulation itself.
Minimisation. We collect what's needed for the app to work — not everything the law might eventually allow us to ask for. More legal access isn't an obligation to use it.
Real portability. You export your data (CSV/PDF) whenever you want. The logic behind FIDA — data that follows you, not the institution — is what we've practised from day one.

5 steps to get to open finance with control on your side

Take stock today of the permissions you've already granted. In your homebanking, look for the "consents" or "third-party access" area and revoke what you no longer use.
Always confirm the payee's name on transfers — IBAN/name verification is already mandatory for instant transfers and will extend to the rest. If the name doesn't match, stop.
Be suspicious of urgency. The fastest-growing fraud doesn't break authentication — it convinces you to authorise it yourself. Your bank never asks you to "transfer the money to a safe account".
Ask about the business model of every app you connect your data to: are you paying with money or with data? One of the two is always happening.
Favour tools with easy export and revocation. If leaving means writing an email to support, that's the warning sign.

Europe is doing its part: less fraud, more transparency, data that answers to you. The part no directive can do for you is choosing carefully who you invite into your financial life. Choose with the same care you'd use to choose a safe.

Start free — no card

References

This article was translated from the Portuguese original.