We created a pan-EU forum to meet a policy/sector need
Challenge
The European Commission was planning to launch new EU strategies on Consumer Financial Services, on FinTech and on Sustainable Finance. There existed, however, no specific forum on EU retail financial services addressing all aspects of retail financial services where all relevant stakeholders – consumers, business and the EU institutions – could meet around one table, address challenges to cross border services and find practical solutions.
Solution
The creation of a brand new forum that would welcome all relevant stakeholders. Funded by business members with consumer organisations invited to actively participate in all activities for free, the European Retail Financial Forum (ERFF) was launched in October 2015 at a high level event in the European Parliament hosted by Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld.
Results
Since its launch in 2015, ERFF has created several, mainly MEP-hosted, technical interactive workshops and published a number of consensus papers on a range of issues including the future of retail financial services and FinTech, the innovative use of data and digital on-boarding. These activities help stakeholders understand technical issues that in turn contribute to better policymaking for all.
In addition to the Commission and Parliament, representatives of consumer organisations, the Member States, the European Supervisory bodies and European Data Protection Supervisor have been active contributors at ERFF workshops. In September 2018 ERFF co-hosted with the European Economic and Social Committee, the EU institution representing civil society, its first annual conference on ‘Consumers at the heart of finance in Europe’.