On Tuesday 17 December, Finance Watch published a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening the future European ‘FiDA’ Regulation governing the sharing of financial data.
With interinstitutional negotiations due to begin shortly between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, the organisation is warning of the risks associated with Big Tech’s access to consumers’ financial data.
Finance Watch stresses the need to prevent these digital giants from gaining a foothold in the “financial data space” without sufficient guarantees, and urges co-legislators to adopt safeguards.
“Opening up consumer data without proper safeguards risks financial exclusion, like people being denied insurance because of data which reveals past illnesses”, said Finance Watch’s head of research and advocacy, Peter Norwood, in a statement.
According to the organisation, the Council of the EU’s position on ‘gatekeepers’ is problematic, as it does not sufficiently protect consumers.
Finance Watch recommends that the rules should only allow ‘gatekeepers’ and their subsidiaries access to FiDA data if they can demonstrate their ability to comply with the standards imposed on them.
The organisation is also calling for the European Financial Supervisory Authorities to be given a binding role in assessing the eligibility of these entities to access the data.
At the beginning of December, six other associations called for an in-depth assessment of the impact of the future Regulation on the entire value chain (see EUROPE 13541/16).
See Finance Watch’s recommendations: https://aeur.eu/f/euo (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)