On April 18, 2024, the European Parliament announced that Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) adopted their proposal for a harmonized framework for access to financial data at the EU level.

What is the scope of the proposal?

The framework would apply to the following categories of customer financial data:

• mortgage credit agreements, loans, and discounts, except payment accounts including data on balance, conditions, and transactions;
• savings, investments, insurance-based investment products, crypto-assets, real estate, and other related financial assets as well as the economic benefits derived from such assets, including data collected for the purposes of carrying out an assessment of suitability and appropriateness;
• pension rights in occupational pension schemes;
• pension rights on the provision of pan-European personal pension products;
• non-life insurance products; and
• data that forms part of a creditworthiness assessment of a firm which is collected as part of a loan application process or a request for a credit rating.

The framework excludes data related to sickness, health coverage, confidential business data, and undisclosed know-how.

What are the main provisions of the proposal?

The framework would allow for the access of financial data processed by financial institutions, with the customer's explicit permission, to develop and provide tailor-made and data-driven financial products and services. The framework would also make data users specify what they intend to use financial data for. Additionally, data could not be transferred to third parties without permission, and the customer's consent may be withdrawn at any time and free of charge.

Those who are members of the financial data access scheme, including data holders and data users, would be required to agree on the contractual liability for potential breaches, which foresees customer compensation in case of data misuse.

You can read the press release here and the proposal here.