trending
Brussels looks set to deliver a significant blow to US technology giants by excluding them from Europe’s new FiDA financial data-sharing framework.
EU to exclude Big Tech from FiDA
Negotiations over the EU’s Financial Data Access (FiDA) regulation — the centrepiece of efforts to create a single market for digital financial services — are entering their final stages, with diplomats signalling that Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon will be locked out.
The move follows two years of debate over how far non-European platforms should be allowed to access consumer financial information held by banks and insurers.
FiDA
Designed to empower third-party providers to develop services such as budgeting tools, wealth management apps and personalised credit offers, FiDA was originally conceived as the next step beyond Open Banking.
Yet its scope has narrowed sharply under pressure from incumbent financial institutions and national governments.
Germany has been a leading proponent of exclusion, circulating a document urging other member states to keep Big Tech at bay in order to preserve Europe’s “digital sovereignty” and foster an indigenous fintech ecosystem.
Berlin’s concerns found support in both the European Parliament and the Commission, which argued that opening sensitive datasets to powerful digital gatekeepers risked entrenching their dominance.
Strategic Victory
For Europe’s banks, the decision is a strategic victory.
Many feared that if granted access, US tech platforms would be able to intermediate customer relationships, leveraging insights from payments and savings data to cross-sell services and capture significant market share.
By contrast, restricting access allows banks and fintech firms based in the EU to experiment with new products on a more level playing field.
The policy, however, is not without risk. Tech industry lobbyists warn that ordinary consumers stand to lose most.
According to the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which counts Meta and Apple among its members, FiDA’s founding principle was to hand people control over their own data.
Blocking leading platforms, it argues, will limit innovation, reduce consumer choice and entrench the very incumbents Brussels claims to challenge.
The geopolitical backdrop adds further complexity.
US president Donald Trump has threatened to retaliate with tariffs against jurisdictions that “discriminate” against American companies. A decision to exclude Big Tech could therefore spark renewed transatlantic trade tensions, only weeks after Washington and Brussels agreed on a fragile truce.
With the final text expected this autumn, FiDA looks increasingly likely to mark a watershed moment: the EU asserting its digital sovereignty in financial data, even at the cost of fresh strains with Washington and reduced consumer access to global tech platforms.
Comments