EU BEGINS PROBE INTO BANK INDUSTRY

Lenders may have prevented rival services from accessing customers’ data

AS the European Union prepares to usher in sweeping new datasharing rules for finance, anti-trust authorities are probing whether the banking industry is preventing rival services from accessing customers’ accounts.

EU officials carried out unannounced inspections last Tuesday in “a few” countries amid suspicions that “companies involved and/or banking associations representing them” might have thwarted non-bank services, said the European Commission on Friday.

The Dutch Banking Association, the Dutch Payments Association and the Polish Banking Association confirmed that inspectors sought information from their organisations.

The inspections came as the bloc’s retail banking industry was being reshaped by financial technology firms offering a range of apps and services to consumers, often via their smartphones. Lawmakers in Brussels have supported innovation as a way to provide consumers with more choices in financial services.

Beginning in January, virtually every lender in the bloc will have to provide outside firms with regular access to their customer accounts and data under a law known as the Payment Services Directive 2.

The legislation was designed to help challenger banks, fintech startups, as well as tech giants like Apple Inc and Google, compete with traditional lenders and payment processing firms.

Some banking groups have complained that data-sharing would force them to make expensive changes to their information technology systems and help rivals pick off their customers.

The commission said it conducted the inspections with officials from national competition authorities. Bloomberg