Financial services contracts

Key points:

The EESC:

• stresses the need to invest in peoples' digital and financial literacy in order to enable consumers to correctly understand their rights and obligations relating to financial contracts concluded at a distance, particularly the right to withdrawal from a contract and the right to obtain more information in a pre-contractual phase;
• affirms that an approach that strikes the right balance between digital experience and business experience in physical establishments is of crucial importance; calls for the right to "human intervention" in remote financial services to be guaranteed;
• considers that improving trust in our financial systems is a fundamentally useful principle for society in the area of consumer financial services, and draws attention to the need to invest consistently in cybersecurity;
• takes the view that remote financial services are the perfect opportunity to better enforce consumer rights and stimulate business investment in this area;
• strongly recommends that artificial intelligence be used to build a better, more integrated single market that supports citizens and ensures secure operations within the financial system;
• stresses the need to clarify the activities of businesses established outside the EU, which may have an impact on European citizens;
• calls for action regarding publicity rules and standards linked to the sensitive process of delivering financial services at a distance, and
• considers that, in order to better implement the Directive and truly benefit from its principles, investment in infrastructure is vital in order to achieve better results.