Though there was criticism from citizens and NGOs, Europe is proceeding with its ‘open finance‘ plans, promising citizens they will get a “wider range of better and cheaper financial products and services“.
In reality, the proposals are only in the interests of certain sections of the business community and there is a high risk that all the benefits will end up with the well-known big US tech companies.

Commission proposals
The European Commission recently presented its financial data access and payments package, consisting of:

• Proposal for a Regulation on a framework for financial data access (FIDA Regulation, this is the open finance proposal)
• Proposal for a Regulation on payment services in the internal market (PSR)
• Proposal for a Directive on payment services and electronic money services in the internal market (PSD3)

Open finance represents the European desire for all account holders to open up their account data (which contains very large amounts of third-party personal data) to fintech companies, which can use the wisdom they extract from the transaction data to create “innovative” products. The major problems with cybersecurity are mentioned as a concern but are not seriously addressed in the European proposals.

As with PSD2, there is a lack of attention to the fact that payment transaction data includes data of third parties (‘silent third parties’) who have not given their consent for their personal data to be processed.

The European Commission is not taking data protection seriously
Even if there is a verbal commitment to data protection, the reality at the Commission is different.
Read for instance the article by noyb, a NGO that is defending data protection rights of Europeans, on the press conference held by EU Commissioner Didier Reynders. This Commissioner used the official press conference of the European Commission to discredit the work of civil rights organizations like noyb:

Commissioner Reynders used his time on stage to (for the third time) make the allegation that citizens and “non-profits” bring cases before the CJEU as a “business model”. This is an unacceptable attack on the important work of civil rights organizations

Open finance
There is every reason to pay close attention to the European Commission’s open finance proposals.

More information:

General information on the financial data access and payments package (European Commission):

• Modernising payment services and opening financial services data: new opportunities for consumers and businesses (press release)
• Financial data access and payments package (page)
• Payment services (page)

FIDA Regulation (draft for an open finance regulation)

• Proposal for a Regulation on a framework for financial data access
• Impact assessment accompanying the proposal on financial data access
• Summary of the impact assessment accompanying the proposal on financial data access
• Timeline of the initiative on financial data access and stakeholder’s feedback
• Framework for financial data access (page)

PSR and PSD3 (drafts regarding the European payments system)

• Proposal for a Regulation on payment services in the internal market (PSR)
• Proposal for a Directive on payment services and electronic money services in the internal market (PSD3)
• Impact assessment, summary of the impact assessment
• Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Central Bank and the European Economic and Social Committee on the review of Directive 2015/2366/EU on payment services in the internal market
• Report from the Commission on the review of settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems including its application to domestic institutions participating in third-country systems and of financial collateral arrangements
• Summary of responses: Review of the Directive on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems
• Summary of responses: Review of the Directive on financial collateral arrangements