The Commission’s new public consultation, which is open until August 2, 2022, is also seeking views on a potential new “open finance” framework more generally. In addition to the public consultation, a separate, more focused consultation on open finance has also been launched by the Commission.
Open finance is a concept that imagines that access to data in financial services is opened beyond the institutions that hold the data, and then used to deliver new and innovative services. The concept goes beyond the scope of only payment account data to which PSD2 applies. The Commission digital financial strategyalso published in September 2020, envisages the development of a new European open funding framework by 2024.
One of the questions asked in the public consultation is: “Should the financial service providers who hold your data be obliged to share it with other financial service providers or third parties, provided that you have given your consent? “.
The Commission has also advanced a separate initiative that it has dragged into its digital finance strategy in recent days, tabling proposed revisions to EU rules on distance marketing of consumer financial services. In its strategy, it said it would “assess whether and how the customer protection and conduct aspects of a number of pieces of EU law can be improved to take account of new digital means of provide financial services” and made specific reference to the requirements under the existing directive on the distance marketing of financial services.
The Commission’s proposals aim to make it easier for consumers to withdraw from contracts for financial services concluded online within 14 days of the conclusion of these contracts. They also deal with the content, form and extent of the pre-contractual information that financial service providers must share with consumers.
The proposals also promise to strengthen companies’ disclosure obligations regarding the use of roboadvice tools or chat bots and make it easier for consumers to request human intervention.
The draft new rules would also prohibit businesses from using “the structure, design, function or mode of operation of their online interface in a way that could distort or interfere with consumers’ ability to make a decision or free, autonomous and informed choice”.