Portugal

According to Kepios, 85% of Portuguese had access to the internet in 2022. Of all Portuguese citizens using the internet, 56% used the internet for online banking in 2019, which was 10% below the EU average. Portugal ranks 12th in the integration of digital technologies and 14th for digital public services among EU countries.

Portugal falls under the PSD2 legislation and has adopted Berlin Group’s NextGenPSD2 standard. PSD2 is a European Directive that regulates electronic payment services and was implemented in all EEA countries in 2016 and went live in September 2019. 

In their European Open Banking league, Yapily ranked Portugal 4.5 out of 10. Regulators have worked with the industry to progress standardisation of technical standards, despite this, banks and firms are yet to widely adopt Open Banking. In Portugal the main barrier to Open Banking adoption is the incumbent banks approach to supporting Third-Party Providers (TPPs). According to Yapily, regulators should prescribe stricter SLAs for banks to meet. For example, TPPs should be able to resolve issues and outages with banks, within three working days. Regulators should also collect more data and supervise API availability more closely. Removing any artificial barriers raised in consumer journeys that make it easier to use a card instead of Open Banking when making a payment will also aid adoption in Portugal.

The EU Commission has announced its intention to adopt an Open Finance regulatory framework.

According to The Global Findex Database, 93% of Portuguese adults had bank accounts in 2021. In a recent study researching Open Banking adoption among consumers, Portuguese consumers scored higher than average Europeans in all areas measured. 48% of Portuguese consumers were interested in receiving intelligent assistance to manage payments, 45% were interested in having their data used to develop convenient new payment methods, 37% having their data used in aggregating financial information and storing it in one place and 38% in having their data used to offer a better range or better quality of services.

The Portuguese Government is currently studying and drafting cross-sector and primary legislation for Technology Free Zones, that promote and facilitates research, demonstration and testing activities.

As of 2022, Portugal had no domestic Third-Party Providers (TPPs).

Portugal ranks 14th in human capital among EU countries in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2022. The human capital measures digital skills, the proportion of employed people working as ICT specialists, female ICT specialists, and enterprises offering ICT training.

The Portuguese Government is currently studying and drafting cross-sector and primary legislation for Technology Free Zones, of innovative technologies, products, services, processes and models. The Resolution goes beyond the creation of disparate regulatory sandboxes, innovation spaces, experimental spaces or living labs that are set up for specific sectors, as it dopts a cross-sector and integrated approach for experimentation activities, therefore reducing burdens and promoting a culture of experimentation. 

Portugal uses SIBS API Market and has also adopted the Berlin Group’s NextGenPSD2 technical standard.