On 14 September 2019, new requirements for authenticating online payments will be introduced in Europe as part of the Second Payment Service Directive (PSD2). The purpose of these requirements is to give you more control of your banking data and how this is used.
The new rules are known as Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), which is a new European regulatory requirement to help reduce fraud and make online payments more secure.
How does this affect Xero?
The new directive means the way some banks connect to Xero will change.
Existing Xero bank feeds with Barclays, as well as all UK and EU bank feeds set up using Yodlee, will no longer be available. Many of them will be replaced by new direct feeds using Open Banking.
If you are using Xero, you will need to change to new direct feeds, where available. This will ensure your transactions can continue to flow into Xero each day. New Xero feeds are safe, straightforward and free.
Some businesses using Xero won’t have a feed to connect to straightaway, as not every account type will be supported immediately and some banks will be making feeds available at a later date. In the interim, if you don’t have a new feed to connect to, you’ll need to manually import transactions into Xero or wait until a feed is available and backdate transactions.
About OpenWrks
Xero have partnered with technical service provider, OpenWrks to securely access Open Banking gateways for some banks. OpenWrks is a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised Account Information Service Provider (AISP) – OpenWrks is secure, free and easy to set up through Xero.
Getting your business ready
The new feeds will be available in stages for most UK banks and account types at the beginning of August. However, some customers won’t have a feed to connect to as some banks will be making feeds available at a later date.
For further help and information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Lee Sugden or Mark Tooby on 0161 761 5231 or email theteam@horsfield-smith.co.uk.
