Consumer financial services (Communication)

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes that at this stage the European Commission is refraining from regulatory measures and supports it in its determination to apply the relevant competition rules;
• notes that particular attention is to be paid to the traditional retail banks ("boring banking") as a key intermediary of such products and services;
• recommends taking steps to ensure that the tax arrangements for products and services are no longer an obstacle to fair competition;
• urges the Commission to make provision for appropriate, independent, obligatorily certified comparison tools for different financial products in the various legal jurisdictions of the EU;
• recommends regulation of non-European IT giants which use their customer databases to offer customised products for direct sale without being subject to EU rules;
• recommends that the Commission define additional products, which are simple, with the same characteristics so that they are transparent and can be compared to the consumer products already set out in the action plan.

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat.