Under the PSD2 Regulatory Technical Standards (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389, Article 33), an ASPSP that offers a dedicated interface for third-party access must also have a contingency mechanism — a fallback that licensed TPPs can use if the dedicated interface becomes unavailable or stops performing.

This page describes Klarna's contingency mechanism. It applies to Klarna's dedicated XS2A interface for PSD2 third-party access.

This contingency mechanism applies to account information and payment initiation services in respect of Klarna balance accounts held with Klarna Bank AB. It does not extend to other Klarna products or payment methods that are not accessible via the Klarna Bank AB dedicated XS2A interface.

Klarna's contingency mechanism is the customer-facing online banking interface at klarna.com — the same interface your customer uses to access and manage their Klarna account.

If the dedicated interface is unavailable, a licensed TPP may access the account information or initiate the payment it needs through this online banking interface, identifying itself as a TPP, until the dedicated interface is restored. This is the fallback foreseen by RTS Article 33(4).

The fallback is intended only for the situations described in RTS Article 33 — it is not an alternative route for normal traffic. It may be used when the dedicated interface:

• does not perform in line with the availability and performance requirements of RTS Article 32 (for example, repeated errors or excessive response times), or
• is subject to unplanned unavailability or a systems breakdown.

In line with RTS Article 33(1), unavailability or breakdown is presumed when five consecutive requests for access are not answered within 30 seconds. Once the dedicated interface is restored, TPPs must return to using it.

When using the online banking interface as a fallback, the TPP must:

1. Identify itself with its QWAC certificate. The TPP authenticates with the same eIDAS QWAC it uses on the dedicated interface. The fallback is not anonymous access.
2. Rely on Klarna's customer authentication (Strong Customer Authentication) and not modify or interfere with the online banking interface. Strong Customer Authentication continues to apply through the fallback interface.
3. Justify the use of the fallback to Klarna. When a TPP uses the contingency mechanism, it must inform Klarna and justify why it used the fallback instead of the dedicated interface (i.e. that the dedicated interface was unavailable or not performing) by email to support.xs2a.banking@klarna.com. This reflects the TPP's obligation to inform the ASPSP when it makes use of the fallback (RTS Article 33(5)(e)); the TPP must also be able to justify the use to its National Competent Authority on request (RTS Article 33(5)(d)).
4. Comply with all applicable obligations under RTS Article 33(5). In particular, when using the fallback the TPP must: (a) not access, store or process data beyond what is strictly necessary to provide the service requested by the payment service user (Article 33(5)(a)); (b) continue to comply with its obligations under Article 66(3) (for PISPs) or Article 67(2) (for AISPs) of PSD2 (Article 33(5)(b)); and (c) log all data accessed through the fallback interface and provide those logs to its competent national authority on request and without undue delay (Article 33(5)(c)).

No separate contract or commercial agreement is required to use the fallback — access is available to every licensed TPP on the same basis as the dedicated interface (RTS Article 30(1)).

Klarna monitors the availability and performance of the dedicated interface, publishes the required service-level statistics, and notifies TPPs of planned downtime and of major incidents affecting the interface. Problems with the dedicated interface are addressed without undue delay.

Availability, response-time statistics (AIS and PIS), planned maintenance and incident history are published on the Klarna Bank Account status page at status.xs2a.banking.klarna.com. You can subscribe there to be notified whenever an incident is created, updated or resolved.

For questions about the contingency mechanism or interface availability, contact support.xs2a.banking@klarna.com.