Financial Data Access Proposal (FIDA): Powering a Stronger, Smarter Financial Future for Europe

As Andres Lehtmets highlights, FIDA can unlock a more inclusive and competitive financial system — but only if consumers gain more control over their data and can use it to access better-value products across Europe.

Data drives economic growth, innovation, and societal progress, especially in finance and insurance where data-powered insights enable new business models. In summer 2023, as part of the European Data Strategy[1], the European Commission proposed the Financial Data Access (FIDA) framework[2] to bring Europe’s financial sector into the digital age.[3]

FIDA would set clear rights and obligations for data sharing across the sector, going beyond payment accounts to cover almost all European Union-regulated financial services, including investments, pensions, and insurance. It would allow individuals and SMEs to share data collected by financial institutions during their interactions, in a secure and machine-readable format, with authorised data users such as other financial institutions or InsurTech, FinTech and PensionTech firms.

The goal is to enable better, cheaper, and more innovative products and services while ensuring that risks such as cybersecurity, ICT vulnerabilities, and data protection are effectively managed. Crucially, FIDA could foster innovation and competition, ensuring the EU’s financial sector remains fit for purpose and aligned with wider EU priorities.

Savings and Investment Union (SIU): Driving EU Growth and Competitiveness

Europe faces rising living costs, housing shortages, and profound social, environmental, and economic shifts, intensified by geopolitical instability and generational change. To respond, the European Commission launched its Savings and Investment Union (SIU) strategy.[4]

The SIU aims to channel Europeans’ savings into productive investments, giving citizens better access to capital markets, providing companies with more financing options, and helping households build wealth while strengthening EU competitiveness. It seeks to expand choice for savers, help businesses grow, and support priorities such as climate action, defence, and the green and digital transitions.

By deepening and integrating the EU financial system, the SIU aims to make Europe a more attractive investment destination, boosting competitiveness and strategic autonomy. It is designed as a horizontal enabler, supporting all sectors and mobilising capital towards EU strategic objectives.

However, these ambitions cannot be realised without FIDA. By reducing data fragmentation and enabling seamless access to financial data across the EU, FIDA would lay the digital foundations for a more integrated, efficient financial system. It is not just complementary to the SIU, it is a precondition for its success.

How FIDA Supports the SIU

FIDA can turn the SIU from vision into reality by driving three key shifts: boosting retail participation in capital markets, accelerating supplementary pensions, and enabling more efficient supervision in the European Single Market.

1. Empowering retail investors

Retail participation depends on simple, accessible, low-cost solutions. SIU proposes creating a European blueprint for savings and investment accounts based on existing best practices. Digital interfaces are key here, as they make investing seamless and switching effortless, but they depend on access to financial data.

FIDA could also enable cross-border credit data sharing, allowing banks to onboard customers without local credit histories. This would support Single Market goals, enhance inclusion, and help people access banking anywhere in the EU.

Finally, improving financial literacy is vital, but education alone is not enough.[5] By powering insurance dashboards[6] and wallets[7], pension dashboards and money management apps, FIDA can give consumers a clear view of their finances, help them make better decisions, and inspire simpler, more innovative product design. This is about building an ecosystem where start-ups can develop solutions using reliable, standardised data.

2. Strengthening supplementary pensions

Pension dashboards are effective where they exist, yet many EU markets still lack them. Their success depends on data access and standardisation, both of which FIDA would enable. Without it, the Single Market risks staying fragmented.

This links to ongoing reviews of the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) and Pan-European Personal Pension (PEPP) frameworks, where the cost of advice remains a major barrier. By streamlining processes, enabling automation, and offering holistic pension overviews, FIDA could cut costs, boost participation, and accelerate overall digitalisation across the pensions sector.

3. Enhancing supervision and oversight

The SIU calls for more efficient supervision, highlighting the role of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) as data and technology hubs and providers of SupTech tools.

Through API-based data exchange, FIDA could enhance supervision by enabling more responsive compliance and oversight via RegTech and SupTech solutions[8], supporting both innovation and the EU’s broader simplification agenda.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities

The European Commission has set ambitious goals for 2024–2029: a faster, simpler, and more united Union. As underlined in the recent State of the Union speech[9], the message is clear: less fragmentation, more capital for European scale-ups, stronger fairness standards, and greater innovation capacity.

FIDA is central to this vision. It is more than a data access framework, it is the foundation for delivering the SIU. And the SIU is about growing markets, bringing more consumers into financial services, and creating opportunities for all.

This is a major opportunity for consumers, financial firms, innovators, and for Europe as a whole.

Let’s make it happen.

 

This editorial piece was first published in The Paypers' Open Finance Report 2025, the latest comprehensive market overview and analysis focusing on the key players and products within the Open Banking and Open Finance ecosystem. Download the full report to discover more insightful content.