This Practice Note on financial technology (Fintech) examines strategies implemented by the EU institutions, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) (namely the European Securities and Markers Authority (ESMA), the European Banking Authority (EBA) and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to encourage innovation in the EU Fintech market in a well-regulated manner. For more information about Fintech strategies and actions taken by UK authorities and regulators, see Practice Note: UK regulation of financial innovations and fintech. For more information on supranational developments in this area, see Practice Note: Supranational regulation of financial innovations and Fintech. The use of technology to deliver financial services is transforming the sector. Fintech encompasses a wide range of financial services and products that intersect with technology. These include crowdfunding platforms such as peer-to-peer lending, online payments and credit services, digital wallets and e-money, automated or robo investment advice, artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, blockchain and cryptoassets. While these products and services are all different, they all make use of technology to

What is clearing of derivatives? Clearing is a process which eliminates the normal risk that a party to a derivatives transaction will default (counterparty risk). The main parties involved in the clearing process are: • a financial institution known as a clearing house, and • other financial institutions, usually banks or brokers, which enter into a clearing agreement with the clearing house—these institutions are known as clearing members of the clearing house or simply clearing firms In cleared transactions: • all transactions are entered into by clearing members, which may do this for their own accounts or for the accounts of their clients, and • the clearing house interposes itself between the clearing members who have entered into the transaction, becoming a party to every transaction—each party therefore is exposed to the risk of the clearing house but not to the risk of the other party Clearing members do not need to be concerned with the identity or credit quality of their clearing member counterparties, but only with the credit quality

What are mobile payments? The term 'mobile payments' can mean different things depending on who you are talking to. At its simplest it is allowing a customer to use their mobile device to pay another person or company. The concept of a mobile payment has been defined by the European Commission (Commission) in its Green Paper ‘Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments’ as: ‘payments for which the payment data and the payment instruction are initiated, transmitted or confirmed via a mobile phone or device. This can apply to online or offline purchases of services, digital or physical goods’. For more information about the Commission’s Green Paper, see UK regulation of mobile payments below. Mobile payments, as an industry, is rapidly expanding with the launch of Apple Pay, Google's 'Android Pay' and Samsung's 'Samsung Pay'. The retail payments market has experienced significant technical innovation, with rapid growth in the number of electronic and mobile payments and the emergence of new types of payment services in the market place, which challenges

Scope of this Practice Note This Practice Note provides an overview, and highlights the key provisions, of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which came into effect on 13 January 2018. It provides a comparison against the first Payment Services Directive (PSD). It also describes the subordinate level 2 measures required to be adopted by the European Commission under PSD2 and provides an overview of the level 3 measures published by the European Securities and Markets Association (ESMA), the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Commission in relation to PSD2. For more information about equivalent provisions in the Payment Services Regulations 2017, SI 2017/752 (PSRs 2017), see Practice Note: UK regulation of payment services providers—essentials For additional information about the Eurosystem’s wider policy strategy for payments, including the comprehensive payments strategy, the cash strategy and the retail payments strategy, see Practice Note: EU payments strategy—essentials. Background to PSD2 The first Payment Services Directive (Directive 2007/64/EC) (PSD) was required to be implemented by 1 November 2009 by Member States. The PSD was intended to regulate

A structured product is a hybrid investment product, which may be more or less complex, containing a combination of two or more disparate elements, for example debt securities and derivatives (swaps, futures and options). For each element of a structured product, consideration should be given to the regulatory requirements which apply generally to stand alone transactions of that type. In addition, there are regulatory requirements which have specific relevance to structured products. This Practice Note describes the principal EU regulations which: • govern debt securities and derivatives generally • have specific relevance to structured products, and • govern securitisations and covered bonds Structured products involving debt securities For all structured products that involve debt securities, see Practice Note: EU and UK regulation of the debt capital markets—one minute guide. This covers: • the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (EU) 600/2014 (EU MiFIR) • Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (EU Prospectus Regulation) • Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (EU Market Abuse Regulation) Regulation) • the Transparency Directive 2004/109/EC (TD)

STOP PRESS: On 17 June 2025, the European Commission published its long-awaited review of the EU Securitisation Framework, accompanied by a comprehensive legislative proposal to amend the EU Securitisation Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2017/2402), the EU Capital Requirements Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 575/2013), the EU Solvency II Delegated Regulation (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35) and the EU Liquidity Coverage Requirement Delegated Regulation (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61). As the legislative process advances through the EU’s procedure, further consultations and amendments are expected. The principal regulations that govern the debt capital markets in the EU and the EEA are set out below. MiFID II/MiFIR The central pieces of legislation governing the debt capital markets in the EU are the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (EU) 600/2014 (EU MiFIR). MiFID II provides for the authorisation and regulation of entities whose regular occupation or business is the provision of one or more investment services to third parties and/or the performance of one or more

Law360, London: Europe's banking regulator wants the EU's planned anti-money laundering (AML) authority to harmonise enforcement across member states, penalising rule breaches against categories of severity.

Law360: The EU's banking watchdog has said that national regulators can start reporting information on named individuals to the EU's centralised anti-money laundering (AML) database from May 2024, in a step further strengthening the dispute against financial crime.

EU securitisation framework—background and purpose In September 2015, the European Commission published the Action Plan on Building a Capital Markets Union. The Action Plan proposed a broad range of measures which would create a unified capital market across the EU’s Member States—a Capital Markets Union or CMU. This was designed to promote investment and boost growth. The Commission’s initiative resulted in: • Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 (the EU Securitisation Regulation), which applies to all EU securitisations and includes due diligence, risk retention and transparency rules together with the criteria for simple, transparent and standardised (STS) securitisations, and • Regulation (EU) 2017/2401(the EU CRR Amendment Regulation) which makes the capital treatment of securitisations for banks and investment firms under the Capital Requirements Regulation (EU) 575/2013 (EU CRR) more risk-sensitive and able to reflect properly the specific features of STS securitisations In addition, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/1221 (the EU Solvency II Delegated Act Amendment Regulation) was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 10 September 2018. This makes a

Directive 2001/83/EC (the Pharmaceutical Code) establishes a period of ‘data exclusivity’ from the initial authorisation of innovative medicinal products during which the pre-clinical and clinical trial data generated and used to support the authorisation of an innovative medicinal product cannot be referred to by an applicant for a marketing authorisation (MA) for a generic product. Data exclusivity therefore serves to offer a guarantee to innovative companies that scientific data generated for the MA of the innovative medicinal product is protected and will not be used to assess applications from manufacturers of generic or biosimilar medicinal products until after expiry of the data exclusivity which the innovative medicinal product enjoys. This period of data exclusivity is also known as regulatory data protection (RDP). This Practice Note provides an overview of the applicable EU provisions governing RDP of MAs for innovative medicinal products and explores how it impacts on the entry of generic and biosimilar medicinal

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. This Practice Note provides an overview of the EU regulatory framework for the regulation of electronic communications (the Framework) and its core elements. It summarises the scope and content of the main directives that made up the Framework and the policy areas addressed. The objective of the Framework was to establish a harmonised framework for the regulation of electronic communications networks and services throughout the EU. A full set of the Framework documents current to December 2009 has been published by the European Commission. The Framework was replaced by Directive (EU) 2018/1972, the European Electronic Communications Code, which is a recast and consolidation of the Framework directives (save for Directive 2002/58/EC (the ePrivacy Directive)). Directive (EU) 2018/1972 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code was adopted by the Council of the EU on 3 December 2018, with publication in the Official Journal of the EU on 17 December 2018 and entry into force three days after publication. Member States have

This Practice Note explores Directive 2002/58/EC (the ePrivacy Directive), which governs the confidentiality of communications and the processing of personal data in the electronic communications sector. It is part of a series of Practice Notes on core elements of the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications. In the EU, the provision of electronic communications networks and services in each Member State is governed by a common regulatory framework, which previously comprised five directives, including the ePrivacy Directive. See Practice Note: EU regulatory framework for electronic communications [Archived]. The original objective of the framework was to establish a harmonised regime for regulating the electronic communications sector. In December 2018, the framework was updated via Directive (EU) 2018/1972 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (Recast) (the European Electronic Communications Code). This consolidated four of the directives which make up the framework. The European Electronic Communications Code has been in force since December 2018, although Member States had until 21 December 2020 to implement it into national law. See Practice Note: The European