04 December 2024

Capital markets Union: Council agrees to make consumers’ financial data more accessible

The Council today reached an agreement on a proposed framework for Financial Data Access (FIDA) that aims to open the access of financial institutions to each other’s customer data.

More accessible data

Better data sharing would allow market participants to target consumers with highly personalised financial products and services, for example investment opportunities, streamlined loan application processes or lower interest rate products.

This would create a more competitive financial sector and improve consumers’ - in particular private persons and small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) - access to finance.

The proposal aims to reach this byintroducing harmonised rules on what data to share and how to share it, fostering transparency and comparability, and ensuring appropriate compensation for the data holders that make such data available.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure adequate customer protection, the new framework would guarantee that customers retain effective control over their data. In addition it would empower the European Supervisory Authorities to issue guidelines to provide for protection against unfair treatment or exclusion risks.

The Council’s position

The Council in its position largely supports the Commission’s initial proposal, following a step-by-step approach for the implementation of the regime. It clarifies its scope by defining what specific data sets, products or sectors, these rules should cover and apply to, as well as a timeframe for the data sharing obligations to kick-in. For instance, the Council excluded data related to occupational pensions but gave member states the possibility to opt into the regime. It also granted data sharing schemes the ability to introduce a time limit to the customer data to be shared if it is not readily available in digital form.

The Council reinforced the rules governing third country financial information service providers (FISPs), which are entities that are authorised to access and use customer data to offer services like financial advice and personal financial management. Furthermore, entities that qualify as gatekeepers would be strictly regulated and supervised in order to ensure fair competition.

Next steps

With this agreement, the Council is ready to negotiate the final shape of the legislation with the European Parliament. Once an agreement has been found, both institutions would have to formally adopt the new legislation, before it would be published on the EU’s Official Journal and entered into force.

Council

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