Definition: Payment service

Category: ECB terminology

Business activity consisting in the execution of payment transactions on behalf of a natural or legal person, where at least one of the payment service providers is located in the European Community. For the purposes of payments statistics, a payment service is understood as the acceptance by an entity (e.g. a credit institution) of a payment transaction for further execution (which may be the task of another entity) by way of cashless clearing and/or settlement. Payment service is not linked to providing technical infrastructure (e.g. telecommunication or payment terminals installed at retailers) or to providing the settlement (e.g. payment system). http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2007:341:0001:0232:EN:PDF