On August 4, 2017, the European Banking Association (EBA) published a discussion paper on its approach to FinTech. To enable a better understanding and insight into the financial services offered and financial innovations being applied by FinTech firms within the European Union, the EBA undertook a FinTech mapping exercise. The EBA received responses from 22 Member States and 2 European Economic Area (EEA) states, and the discussion paper outlines the results of its EU-wide mapping exercise, the main financial services provided, regulatory status and proposals on future work on FinTech.

The EBA considers that there is merit in undertaking follow up work in several areas, following the mapping exercise and work done by other intergovernmental and EU bodies related to FinTech and prior work conducted on specific innovations by the EBA. These areas are:

• Authorization and sandboxing regimes
• The impact on the prudential risks for credit institutions and electronic money institutions
• The impact of FinTech on the business models of the above institutions
• Consumer protection and retail conduct of business issues
• The impact of FinTech on the resolution of financial firms
• The impact of FinTech on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism

The discussion paper considered a number of the issues arising out of the above 6 issues, whilst summarising the EBA’s work to date in addressing them, identifying possible gaps and outlines the additional work that the EBA may wish to pursue in connection with these areas. The major aim of the discussion paper is to seek the views of external stakeholders on the EBA’s assessment and the viability of the possible future work in these identified areas.

The EBA invites comments to be made on the paper until 6 November 2017, and a public hearing is scheduled for 4 October 2017. The EBA will assess the responses with a view to deciding the future steps to be taken during 2018.

Rizwan Qayyum contrbuted to this article.