ALFI response to the European Commission consultation on its legislative proposal for an EU framework on crowd and peer to peer finance

23 November 2017

This initiative is part of the Commission's priority of establishing a Capital Market Union. Broadening access to finance for SMEs, in particular for innovative companies, start-ups and scale-ups, is at the heart of the 2015 CMU Action Plan.

The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) welcomes the European Commission’s intended initiative to launch an Inception Impact Assessment. ALFI has carefully analysed the various options the inception impact assessment document listed and concluded that:

• a pan European approach would be very helpful, so consequently, option 3 (a pan European regulation) would be a good start. 
• When taking a closer look at option 4 (national level with an opt-in passport possibility on the EU level) ALFI concluded that this might be even more beneficial, as it provides a combination of option 3 and the current status on a need to have basis. 

It was ALFI’s understanding that under option 4, platforms which only operate on a local level (which is the majority of the platforms) could continue their business on the basis of national regulation and peculiarities.

If they want to expand and operate on a cross border basis, they could opt in into an EU passportable regulation. This would give them the most flexibility and they wouldn’t risk losing their license and current status quo because of a new regulation.

Full response

© ALFI - Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry