US and European officials have begun an "informal dialogue" on consumer financial protection issues, focusing on the rise of Big Tech in payments; the use of AI in lending; and the emergence of buy now, pay later.
Senior officials from the European Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been holding meetings about the three controversial "priority areas" in an effort to share expertise and best practice and to coordinate approaches.
BNPL has seen its popularity surge on both side of the Atlantic in recent years, raising concerns about over-indebtedness, which the EC expects to increase significantly over the next 10 years.
Meanwhile, regulators in the US and Europe have been working to address the increasing incursion of Big Tech into finance, specifically payments. Both the EC and CFPB have raised antitrust concerns about Apple's digital wallet.
On AI, officials "discussed the differences and similarities in the respective legal and regulatory frameworks with respect to consumer finance and shared information on the types of AI and automated decision-making use-cases that firms in each jurisdiction are deploying".
In a statement, CFPB director Rohit Chopra and EC Commissioner Didier Reynders say: "It is critical for the US and EU to coordinate on the firms, products, consumer trends, and risks that span the Atlantic. Our staff have shared expertise, best practices, and lessons learned on an important set of issues."
They continue: "Together, we can help ensure that consumers across the Atlantic have their financial data and privacy respected, not surveilled and misused; retain meaningful choices in competitive consumer finance markets; avoid fraud and manipulation; and have the tools necessary to get recourse when something goes wrong."