The Act on the Supervision of Payment Services (Payment Service Supervision Act - ZAG) introduced on the basis of Directive 2007/64/EC of 13 November 2007 and revised by Directive 2009/110/EC of 16 September 2009, created a new regulatory framework for payment service providers. The application scope of the ZAG on the one hand includes payment institutions, i.e. companies offering commercial payment services such as the execution of direct debits or transfers, and on the other e-money institutions, who offer the issuance of electronic monetary values. These have been subject to special regulatory provisions since the introduction of the ZAG. The ZAG includes a variety of obligations which apply to payment institutions and/or e-money institutions.

In particular payment institutions and e-money institutions are required to to comply with specific equity capital requirements. Additionally, the obligations include securing the amounts of money received for the execution of payment transactions, compliance with anti-money laundering rules, retention requirements, mandatory reporting obligations, and the establishment of a business organisation appropriate to the specific business. There are also special regulations to be complied with in terms of accounting. Detailing of the ZAG requirements arise from a variety of enacted ordinances, for example, the Payment Institution Accounting Ordinance (RechZahlV), the ZAG Institute Equity Capital Ordinance (ZIEV),

the ZAG Reporting Ordinance (ZAGAnzV), and the ZAG Monthly Statement Ordinance (ZAGMonAwV). In addition, the special provisions of the Payment Institution Audit Report Ordinance (ZahlPrüfbV) apply to auditing of ZAG institutions.

Our expertise in providing support to payment service providers lies especially in the annual audit, where we take into account the specific obligations stated in § 18 ZAG. Our employees have many years experience in the field of auditing and are familiar with the special circumstances of payment service providers. In addition to this, we support ZAG institutions (for example in the context of license applications as per §§ 8, 8a ZAG), in developing their business models, and in establishing the required organisational structures and process-orientated organisation, including risk management and an internal controlling system. At the same time, we serve our clients with the entire portfolio of our audit-centric consulting expertise, for example, in the areas of internal auditing, compliance and accounting.

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