ECRI Newsletter Nº 58, Winter 2018
Possible revision of the Consumer Credit Directive in view
The European Commission recently launched an evaluation of the Consumer Credit Directive (CCD) and will soon assess the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD). In order to feed the debate on these two key pieces of legislation, one of ECRI’s priorities is to organise research programmes, seminars and workshops on the different dimensions that could be covered in a possible new CCD.
In September, we published a Policy Brief on “Consumer Credit, Digitalisation and Behavioural Economics Are new protection rules needed?”, which analysed what has changed on consumer credit markets since the adoption of the latest CCD in 2008 and what new rules might be needed. ECRI is also actively working on the impact of national price rules across EU member states on both borrowers and lenders. In addition, we published our authoritative Statistical Package for the eighteenth consecutive year, which provides times series for a large set of variables covering household credit markets. Finally, ECRI is developing research activities on the performance of different types of data used in creditworthiness assessment.
On 20 November, we organised a conference on “Household over-indebtedness: Drivers and remedies”, whose purpose was to focus attention on three drivers behind household over-indebtedness: unexpected income shocks, financial illiteracy and the lack of relevant data on creditworthiness. The present Newsletter includes six articles drafted by panellists who contributed to this event, giving a flavour of the different issues debated during the event.
Beyond our consumer credit agenda, ECRI continues to monitor research activities and events on retail payments. We are currently working on the impact of EU price rules on the different stakeholders involved in payments. In addition, we organised a seminar on 5 December, sponsored by American Express, on “Improving security in payments: What role for innovation?”. This Newsletter includes an article by Lu Zurawski from ACI, who gives his insights into how a sustainable infrastructure for payments could be developed in the digital era.
In addition, ECRI remains active in the issues related to possible technological disruption in retail finance. We are involved in the CEPS Task Force on blockchain. Its report, due at the beginning of next year, will cover different economic sectors, but particular attention will be paid to financial services.
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