This initiative aims to encourage the fintech industry to exploit economies of scale in Europe and to remove administrative hurdles to the cross-border operation of crowdfunding sites and online peer-to-peer lending services. The plans could also be seen as steps in an EU campaign to support an industry it hopes can compete with traditional banks.
The fintech industry has grown rapidly in recent years, with European fintech successes including TransferWise, the Estonian-developed foreign exchange company, and France’s PayPlug, which makes it easier for sole traders to accept credit card payments.
The EU has already moved to open up the online payment services market by giving fintech companies clearer legal rights to access bank data, as part of PSD2 that will take effect in January 2018.
A related part of the plans include a blueprint for “regulatory sandboxes” that give fintech companies scope to test out services they want to offer in a limited, supervised, way without having to comply with all existing regulations, the online publication adds.
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