PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2)
A European directive in force since 2018 that governs payment services across the European Economic Area. It requires banks to open their account data and payment capabilities, via secure APIs, to authorised third parties — aggregators, payment initiators, financial management apps.
Why It Matters
PSD2 is what allows a third-party app to read a bank account's transactions with the user's explicit consent, without re-entering bank credentials. Ankora deliberately positions itself outside PSD2 to respect user privacy.
Concrete Example
An app that aggregates your KBC, Belfius and ING accounts does so via each bank's PSD2 APIs, after consent renewed every 90 or 180 days depending on the bank.