What is a National Competent Authority (NCA) and what is its role?

In the European Union there is a single NCA responsible for each country’s financial supervision. Under the Second Payment Services Directive (<a href="/glossarycollection/the-second-payment-services-directive" style="color:#48277C;" target="_blank" title="The Second Payment Services Directive"><u>PSD2</u></a>) only the NCA can register or authorise businesses offering Open Banking services. This means there is only one oversight body for each country. In the UK, it is the Financial Conduct Authority (<a href="/glossarycollection/financial-conduct-authority" style="color:#48277C;" target="_blank" title="Financial Conduct Authority"><u>FCA</u></a>).