The European Commission has issued a Communication on FinTech to the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Central Bank, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.
The Communication sets out the Commissions Action Plan for FinTech, building on responses from the Commissions public consultation on its policy approach to FinTech, which ran from March to June 2017, and on the work of the Task Force on Financial Technology which was established in November 2016. The Action Plan is part of the Commissions efforts to build a Capital Markets Union and a true single market for consumer financial services. It is also part of its drive to create a Digital Single Market. The Communication is accompanied by Frequently Asked Questions on FinTech and a factsheet.
At this stage, the Commission considers that there is limited need for regulatory or legislative action or reform. However, the outcome of ongoing monitoring and assessment of innovative technologies may point to the need for regulatory action at EU level in the future. The current Action Plan is concerned with initiatives designed to facilitate the emergence of innovative models throughout the EU (through sandboxes and similar approaches), to enable innovative models to scale up (through consistent licensing, common standards and interoperability). The Commission also aims to improve the uptake of technological innovation in the financial sector, by ensuring the suitability of the regulatory regime, reducing barriers to entry for innovative firms such as cloud service providers and, in particular, harnessing the potential of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies. The Action Plan further outlines planned initiatives to strengthen cybersecurity as well as the integrity of the financial system.
An Annex to the Communication sets out a Workplan for 23 separate initiatives to be undertaken either by the Commission itself or by the European Supervisory Authorities. In summary these are:
View the Communication and the Workplan.
View the FAQs.
View the factsheet.
View the Commission press release.
View the Commission's March 2017 consultation and summary of responses.