The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Discussion Paper on its approach to financial technology (FinTech). The EBA sets out in the Discussion Paper the results of the first EU-wide FinTech mapping exercise and its proposals for future work on FinTech.
FinTech has the potential to transform the provision of financial services. For this reason, public authorities in the EU and beyond have started to investigate the impact FinTech is having on the financial system and its regulation and supervision.
The EBA has conducted already a significant amount of work in relation to certain types of financial innovations, such as crowdfunding and virtual currencies, but is stepping up its FinTech-related work to investigate the impact of FinTech on the financial system and its regulation and supervision.
To gain a better understanding of current FinTech activity in the EU, in spring 2017, the EBA launched the first EU-wide FinTech mapping exercise to which it received responses from 22 Member States and 2 EEA States. Detailed information was provided for 282 FinTech firms.
Based on the FinTech mapping exercise and existing EBA work, the EBA has identified proposals for future work in six areas: (i) authorisation and sandboxing regimes; (ii) the impact on prudential and operational risks for credit institutions, electronic money institutions and payment institutions; (iii) the impact of FinTech on the business models of these institutions; (iv) consumer protection and retail conduct of business issues; (v) the impact of FinTech on the resolution of financial firms; and (vi) the impact of FinTech on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.
The EBA invites views from stakeholders on the scope of its proposed work until 6 November 2017. The EBA statement and related information can be found here.