European Commission to cancel FIDA bill

The decision marks a reversal from the Commission’s initial plan to improve consumer access to financial data.

According to a document obtained by POLITICO, the FIDA regulation will be abandoned within six months (i.e. mid-year 2025) as it no longer aligns with the Commission’s current priorities. The document cites the regulation’s potential to introduce ‘significant burden and complexity for financial actors,’ contradicting the EU’s objective to streamline regulations.

Originally proposed in June 2023, FIDA aimed to empower consumers by requiring financial institutions – including banks, money managers, and insurers – to share customer data with both customers and competitors. EU member states reached a preliminary agreement on the draft law in December 2024, arguing that better data-sharing would enable financial firms to offer more personalised financial products and services.

However, financial industry representatives strongly opposed the regulation, questioning its feasibility and market demand. In December 2024, six industry associations, representing banks, insurers, and asset managers, criticised the Commission for not adequately assessing the regulation’s costs. They claimed that their concerns had been repeatedly raised but remained ‘largely unaddressed’.

The chair of the French Insurance Federation likened the proposal to a ‘runaway train speeding ahead with no driver and no brakes’ in a September interview with POLITICO. The French government also voiced concerns, releasing a note in January 2025 advocating for a ‘thorough reassessment’ of FIDA’s economic impact and suggesting that the legislation be revised or abandoned.

Traditional financial institutions feared that FIDA would disproportionately benefit tech companies by granting them easy access to investment and savings data, allowing them to offer highly customised financial products and challenging the dominance of incumbent banks. In response, EU lawmakers proposed stricter access controls for major tech firms, including Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, ByteDance, and Microsoft, to limit their ability to exploit financial data.

Despite growing criticism, the European Commission has declined to comment on the leaked draft, neither confirming nor denying its plans to withdraw the bill. The decision signals a broader shift in EU regulatory priorities and reflects the challenges of balancing innovation with industry concerns in the financial sector, POLITICO concluded.

More about FIDA

FIDA aimed to unlock Open Finance starting with 2025. Emanuel van Praag and Eugerta Muçi discussed key topics: standardisation, data access rights, gatekeepers, & financial inclusion. Also, Anne-Sophie Morvan and Alexandre Keilmann from LUXHUB discussed five use cases, highlighting how FIDA was supposed to revolutionise finance.