The EBA submitted on Friday its response to the European Commission’s Green Paper on Retail Financial Services. In the response, the EBA conveys the views of its member authorities on a subset of the questions asked in the Green Paper, with a particular focus on the risks and opportunities of digital services in the banking sector and the enforcement of consumer protection regulation in the EU.
In December, the EU Commission published a “Green Paper on Retail Financial Services – Better products, greater choice, and greater opportunities for businesses and consumers“. The Green Paper was open for comments until 18 March and sought input on how the European market for retail financial services – namely insurance, loans, payments, current and savings accounts and other retail investments – can be further opened up, bringing better results for consumers and firms, whilst maintaining an adequate level of consumer and investor protection. It seeks to identify the specific barriers that consumers and firms face in making full use of the Single Market and ways in which those barriers could be overcome, including by making best use of new technology, subject to appropriate safeguards.
The Commission envisages publishing an Action Plan on Retail Financial Services to follow up the consultation around summer 2016. The EBA statement and the full response can be found here.