FOR those oddballs whose hearts sing at the thought of bank regulation, Europe is a pretty good place to be. No fewer than five lots of rules are about to come into force, are near completion or are due for overhaul. They will open up European banking to more competition, tighten rules on trading, dent reported profits and boost capital requirements. Although they should also make Europe's financial system healthier, bankers-after a decade of ever-tightening regulation since the crisis of 2007-08-may be less enthused. Start with the extra competition. On January 13th the European Union's updated Payment Services Directive, psd2, takes effect. It sets terms of engagement between banks, which have had a monopoly on customers' account data and a tight grip on payments, and others-financial-technology companies and rival banks-that are already muscling in. Payment providers allow people to pay merchants by direct transfer from their bank accounts. Account aggregators pull together data from accounts at several banks, so that Europeans can see a broad view of their finances in one place-and maybe find better deals for insurance, mortgages and so forth.
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