The French Data Protection Authority’s white paper discusses how companies can comply with data privacy and security obligations.
By Christian F. McDermott, Myria Saarinen, Calum Docherty, Charlotte Guerin, Jiou (Alex) Park, and Amy Smyth
The use of card, contactless, and innovative digital payment solutions has significantly increased in recent years, fueled by the immediate impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the longer-term growth of e-commerce and open banking. In this context, the legal and regulatory environment around payment data is no longer limited to traditional actors in the banking sector or the long-established ambit of banking secrecy rules. As such, stakeholders from fintech startups to established technology giants face an increasing patchwork of compliance obligations.
Last year, more than half of all payments in the UK were made by card and contactless methods, while cash made up less than a quarter of all payments for the first time, according to the trade association UK Finance. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards a cashless society, as governments across Europe encourage citizens and businesses to adopt cashless solutions. At the start of the lockdown, in the spring, ATM transaction volumes in the UK fell 62% year on year, while the daily cash transaction volumes dropped by as much as 90% in Spain, according to the Financial Times.