Eesti Pank, the Estonian Banking Association, businesses and consumer protection authorities decided at the Estonian Payment Forum that it would be wise to encourage bank clients to use more modern and more secure methods of authentication rather than code cards. Some 300,000 bank clients in Estonia use code cards regularly to identify themselves.

The need to review authentication for Estonian bank clients come from the European Union directive on payment services and related legislation, which is intended to increase security and promote innovation. Estonia transposed the changes in the directive in November and added to the list of payment services the two new services of provision of account information and payment initiation. The European Union implementing regulation that will affect authentication services is expected to come into force from September 2019.

The changes will create an environment where the new payment services will let clients manage their payment accounts in different banks, view their account information, and pay for online purchases or make personal transfers securely using just one mobile app. To use such services clients will need to identify themselves using at least two separate security steps. Code cards are not appropriate for this as they are not secure enough.

The Estonian Payment Forum was founded in 2011 by Eesti Pank, the Ministry of Finance and the Estonian Banking Association. The forum aims to support development of the Estonian payment environment and to present the strategic decisions related to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) of the European Union to all market participants.

For further information:
Eva Vahur
Public Relations Office
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