EU regulatory bodies are failing to address competition issues in their public policy towards fintech developments in financial services, according to a report prepared for the European Parliament.
The docoment, prepared for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, says competition concerns have been ignored by policy makers in the years since the financial crisis, as issues around correcting financial stability took centre stage.
The failure to align competition frameworks with regulatory reforms is evident in recent attempts by both the European Commission and the European Banking Authority to address emerging fintech trends: "The Commission's Fintech Action plan is generally vague about how competition considerations will be incorporated the reform process, with only one explicit referernce to the need to ensure that standardisation for interoperability purposes has a pro-competitive effect. The EBA's Fintech Roadmap is no more explicit and only refers to the need to promote equal competition and its relationship with technological neutrality."
The authors believe the emergence of fintech offers fertile ground for a more consistent and streamlined policy stance on competitive issues related to, say, access to data or transparency towards customers.
"Fintech offers a fertile ground to re-open the dialogue between regulatory and competition goals, principles and frameworks, which could help re-balance financial regulation policies towards a more pro-competitive stance," the paper concludes.
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