The European Commission officially launches its EU Digital Finance Platform
On Friday, April 7th, the European Commission launched its EU Digital Finance Platform, which aims at bringing together industry and public authorities to support innovation in the EU’s financial system. It will help work towards a true Single Market in digital finance.
As first explained by Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union, there are currently so many new products, new players, new ways of thinking and or doing finance are opening up a myriad of opportunities for businesses and citizens.
“The new EU Digital Finance Platform, that we are officially launching today will play a part in continuing our work on digital innovation. The EU already has a vibrant, growing community of innovative financial firms. And our regulators have made good progress putting in place new rules that provide the clarity needed for innovation to flourish. Yet, we all know that we have to go further,” she highlighted.
She then focused on what has been achieved so far in the EU, and notably the Single Market. Yet, she admitted that this Single Market is still far from complete, and that for too many innovative financial companies, this Single Market is not fully accessible. “Customers – both businesses and consumers – are missing out on a much bigger, more effective offering,” she added.
The Commission wants to work with all stakeholders, using the levers we have – both big and small – to help create a true Single Market for digital financial services
Mairead McGuinness
How the EU Digital Finance Platform will support innovation
This Platform is one of the key outcomes of the EU Digital Finance Strategy, and is composed of the main pillars:
- One of its two main building blocks, the Digital Finance Observatory, offers opportunities for registered users to share content, for instance about events or research publications linked to digital finance. As underlined by Commissioner McGuinness, “innovative digital firms will literally be able to put themselves on the map – the European Fintech Map – a key feature designed to showcase the fintech community and hopefully spark new discoveries and connections.”
- The second main building block of the Platform is a gateway to national supervisors. “This part of the Platform aims to help overcome these by creating a single access point: providing information about national supervisors and their offerings, as well as national licensing requirements,” she highlighted, “firms will be able to fill in and upload a standard form to notify supervisors they want to be involved in the process. And a cooperation tool will give authorities working on the same case the option to exchange views and documents through the Platform if they choose to do so.”
The European Commissioner concluded by stating that the EC “has put all the elements in place that will enable Fintechs and authorities, but also others interested in digital finance, like established financial firms, academics, NGOs and citizens, to start building stronger relationships.”
Source: European Commission