Yesterday it was announced that the European Central Bank supports the new European directive on payment services in the internal market. (see our previous post: Paying your dues - a new package on Payment Services and BEUC's opinion thereon: Money, money, money...) The legal opinion of the ECB will be published shortly in the Official Journal of the European Union, but in the meantime the press release makes it clear that the ECB supports the broadening of the services' list to include payment initiation services (where a third party provider initiates a payment at the request of the payer, e.g. in online purchases) and account information services (providing consolidated information on different accounts, also in different banks, to allow better overview of the client's financial situation). The ECB suggests some improvements that could enhance the security of these new services and boost competition on the market. One of the developments that are encouraged is the creation of a common European standard for safe authentication of consumers. (ECB supports new European directive for electronic payments)