Banking agent assessment

• PSD2 and national law. Contains rules on when a payment counts as authorised and on refunds for unauthorised payments (Articles 72 to 74). Whether a payment your agent makes counts, and what your bank’s terms say about sharing credentials, can decide who bears a loss. Read your bank’s payment terms and note the clauses.
• PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation (check). Reported to have reached political agreement in November 2025. Sources differ on when it applies, and entry into force was not confirmed on the date above. Reported to change fraud liability and bank interface rules.
• Instant Payments Regulation (EU) 2024/886. Euro payment providers must offer instant transfers and, from October 2025, a payee-name check (Verification of Payee). Decide whether the agent may use instant payments at all, and treat a “no match” or “close match” as a stop for a person.
• GDPR. Transaction data names other people. If the agent or its model provider processes it, GDPR may apply: lawful basis, processor terms, transfers outside the EEA, a data protection impact assessment (Art. 35) and rules on decisions based solely on automated processing (Art. 22).
• EU AI Act (check). Contains an AI-literacy duty (Art. 4), transparency duties (Art. 50) and a list of high-risk uses (Annex III). Application dates were reported to be moving in 2026. A bill-paying agent is probably not on the high-risk list, whereas an agent that evaluates the creditworthiness of individuals could be. Write down how you classified it and have an adviser confirm.
• DORA. Applies to the financial entities it lists (banks, payment and e-money institutions, insurers, investment firms and others) and, through them, to their ICT providers. If your organisation is one of those entities, the agent and its model provider may be ICT third-party arrangements with register, incident-reporting and testing duties. If it is not, DORA does not apply to you directly, but your bank’s duties under it may shape its terms for you.
• Sanctions, money laundering and record keeping. Payments to sanctioned parties may breach rules whatever the agent was told, and banks may question accounts with unusual patterns. National law sets how long invoices, approvals and payment records are kept.

• Regulation E (consumer accounts). Sets liability tiers for unauthorized transfers ($50 or $500, depending on how quickly the consumer reports, plus a 60-day statement rule). Whether a transfer an agent makes counts is unclear: the official commentary treats transfers by someone you gave access to as authorized until you notify the bank. Business accounts are generally not covered.
• UCC Article 4A (wires and many business transfers). A payment order can bind the customer even if the customer did not authorize it, where the bank verified it under a commercially reasonable security procedure the customer agreed to (§4A-202(b)). The customer’s defence is narrow (§4A-203) and reporting deadlines can be short. Get the bank’s written security procedure.
• Nacha Operating Rules (ACH). Fraud-monitoring amendments for ACH originators took effect in two phases in 2026 (March and June), including a defined term for payments made under “false pretenses”, which covers vendor impersonation and business email compromise.
• CFPB open banking rule, §1033 (check). Finalized in 2024. The CFPB’s own page records that a court stayed its compliance dates on 29 October 2025 and that the Bureau is reconsidering it. An agent’s access to your bank data may depend on your bank’s terms.
• State laws. Several states have privacy or automated-decision rules and some have AI laws, a number of them delayed or being rewritten. List the states where you operate and where your payees and employees are, and check each.
• OFAC sanctions and money laundering. Sanctions exposure can arise without intent. Regulated institutions carry their own duties.
• If you are a bank or regulated institution. Model risk guidance (Federal Reserve SR 11-7, OCC 2011-12), your regulator’s third-party risk guidance and the FTC Safeguards Rule may bring the agent into your existing governance.
• Records. Federal and state rules set how long invoices, approvals and payment records are kept. The NIST AI Risk Management Framework and its Generative AI Profile are voluntary and not law, and may help if your organisation already uses them.

• The agent and who (A1, A2). Scope, roles and competence: clauses 4.3, 5.3, 7.2 and 7.3; Annex A.3.
• Levels and checks (A3, A4). Risk treatment and the list of controls with their status: clause 6.1.3; Annex A controls, including A.6 and A.9.
• What can go wrong (B1). Risk assessment and impact assessment: clauses 6.1.2 and 6.1.4; Annex A.5. ISO/IEC 42005 gives guidance on the impact assessment.
• Rules and contracts (B2). Context and obligations: clause 4.1; Annex A.2 and A.10.
• Tests (B3) and watching it (B5). Operational control, monitoring and evaluation: clauses 8.1 and 9.1 to 9.3; Annex A.6.
• Decision (A5). Top management commitment and acceptance of what is left: clauses 5.1 and 6.1.3.

This is not a certification. The standard certifies an organisation’s management system, not a single system, and completing a template does not make anyone conformant.