Finance Watch welcomes the European Commission’s Action Plan as a timely recognition that the digitalisation of financial services is too fundamental a process to be left to the – all too limited – self correcting forces of the market. We are, however, less convinced by its lack of a methodical approach. The Action Plan combines a jumble of proposals that range from the protection of civil rights to industrial policy, with the odd ‘goodie’ for the banking industry thrown in (software accounting).
It would have been helpful if the Commission had been clearer and more transparent in setting out its intentions and objectives for each of these policy initiatives and involved all stakeholders in the preparation of legislative proposals and policy initiatives within its FinTech expert group.