The Autorité de la concurrence has announced the move in a year when scrutiny of new technologies’ impact on financial services has increased, amid concern over non-French companies’ penetration of the growing e-payments market.
The consultation covers three primary areas: the evolution of the payments market in recent years; the “delimitation of the markets concerned and analysis of the position and competitive advantages of the players involved”; and the “commercial practices likely to be implemented by the different actors”.
The three-page consultation document contains 12 questions, including asking respondents for their view of the entry of ‘digital giants’ into the French payments sector; the acquisition of fintech companies specialising in payment services; and competition issues related to ‘crypto-assets’, blockchain and cloud services. The consultation closes on 19 June 2020.
The Autorité said that the “impact of the digital revolution on the financial sector” was one of its priorities when unveiling its 2020 priorities at the start of the year. The Paris-headquartered authority’s president is Isabelle de Silva, who has previously highlighted her concern about US-headquartered tech companies’ moves into online payments in France.
Reacting to the French consultation and using the Autorité’s English acronym the FCA, Florence Leroux from the Paris office of Bird & Bird told Global Government Forum: “The consultation is welcome and shows the FCA’s high interest in the sector. The FCA seems to be particularly concerned with the entry of digital giants into the financial sector (mainly US companies) – which echoes a concern raised earlier this year by the French Ministry of Economy in [its] report dealing with the prominence of US companies in the payments sector in the EU, and whether those companies should be required to keep the data on European soil. The consultation comes, however, at a time when two European Commission consultations are running on fintech and payments, and one might fear some overlapping here.”
The Commission noted, in launching the consultations Leroux refers to, that the coronavirus pandemic means there is a heightened need for well-regulated digital infrastructure across Europe. The executive branch of the 27-member European Union said coronavirus had “underlined the importance of innovation in digital financial products, as reliance on remote services has increased considerably”. Both Commission consultations close on 26 June.
Also in France, there has been further momentum towards a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC). Specifically, Banque de France and Société Générale have trialed blockchain to settle a ‘wholesale’ CBDC transaction, it was announced last week.
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