Payment services

PSD2 is a European directive that regulates payment services in the domestic market. The new regulation involves fundamental changes in the industry including, among others, payment institutions having access to the payment account services of credit institutions in an objective, non-discriminatory and proportioned manner. The aforementioned access must be broad enough to allow the payment institutions to provide payment services efficiently and obstacle-free. This means that banks must allow third-party payment service suppliers (TPPs) to access their infrastructure in order to initiate payments on behalf of customers or provide them an account information service (upon authorization of the account holder). BBVA is one of the first credit institutions to offer a platform and its services through APIs to provide the following services:

• A payment initiation service, which enables the payment institution to initiate a payment order at the request of the payment service user, with regard to a payment account open with BBVA.
• An account information service, the aim of which is to provide aggregated information on one or several payment accounts held by the user of the payment service either at BBVA, or at BBVA and other payment service suppliers.
• Confirmation of funds. BBVA, at the request of a payment service supplier that issues card-based payment instruments, will immediately confirm the availability of funds in the payment account of the payer in order to execute a card-based payment transaction, provided that the latter has given his or her express consent to BBVA.

All cases require the consent of the customers (companies and individuals) and the authentication of them by the bank, and the accounts must be accessible online.

TPPs must comply with the requirements on registration, authorization and monitoring by the stated competent authorities designated by law.

If you are a registered and authorized TPP you can access our APIs, technical specifications and test environment through this link https://market.apis-i.redsys.es/psd2/xs2a/nodos/BBVA. You can also resolve any queries or incidents that occur during the technical configuration process by calling the 24-hour hotline: 91 728 23 21 or by email psd2.sandbox.soporte@redsys.es.

The TPPs will have a customer service helpline available at BBVA at the phone number 91 991 59 35 for the following types of calls:

• Technical incidents that they have not been able to resolve in the setup process.
• Fraud prevention.
• Claims or disputes.
• Complaints.

The quarterly statistics on API availability and performance, and the interface used by payment service users, are published below.

Quarterly information from July 1 to September 30

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. is not required to have a contingency mechanism in place for its specific interface, as Banco de España has exempted it from this obligation due to having verified that the BBVA APIs meet the necessary requirements.