| Abstract [eng] |
As number of Lithuania’s electronic money institutions (EMIs), payment institutions (PIs) and the amount of payment transactions carried out by these institutions is growing for several years, the safeguarding requirements of electronic money holders and/or payment services users and relevant compliance problems are becoming more important. Despite the rapid growth of EMIs and PIs sector, the Lithuanian legal doctrine still lacks detailed research related to the implementation of the respective requirements. In order to describe issues relevant to this topic, national legal acts of the Lithuania and United Kingdom, regulating provision of payment services and issuance of electronic money, resolutions, guidelines and positions of the Bank of Lithuania and European Banking Authority were used as a main source. This work reviews the methods of funds safeguarding, identifies their pros and cons, legal, commercial, and other circumstances that limit the possibilities of EMIs and PIs to implement the respective methods in its day-to-day activities. A lot of attention is paid to the practical issues arising from the implementation of the most popular safeguarding method – funds segregation and holding in safeguarding account opened with the Bank of Lithuania or a credit institution, requirement for EMIs/Pis to evaluate respective credit institutions. The objectives of the study are implemented, inter alia, by identifying types of funds to be safeguarded, providing a legal analysis of bank account, deposit account, and provision of payment service agreements, describing possibilities to apply Deposit Guarantee Scheme in the relevant situations, reviewing the requirements for internal control procedures. After evaluating the current case law of Lithuania and comparing legal regulations of Lithuania and foreign countries, proposals are made on the legal qualification of payment services agreement, protection of relevant funds from the insolvency of credit institution, where safeguarding account was opened, etc. |
