Last week, the European Commission launched a so called Green Paper and a consultation to look at financial services from the perspective of European consumers.

The European Commission finds that retail services are not as integrated in Europe as they could be and therefore wants to change this. The aim is to look at the retail market across Europe for products such as insurance, mortgages, loans, payments and bank accounts. By collecting information through the consultation the Commission hopes to identify the unjustified barriers that consumers face when they want to use financial services across borders. And as follows they also want to find answers on how best to remove these barriers.

The Commission’s goal is to make it easier for those companies that so wish to offer financial products at the retail level in other EU Member States, which would give consumers access to a far greater range of products. The Commission means that people should also be able to take those products with them if they move to another EU country to work, study or retire.

NFU will engage in this discussion and is planning to respond to the consultation.