ECRI Newsletter Nº 59, Summer 2019

The autumn season will be very busy with the confirmation of the new Commissioners and the start of the new College on November 1st. Judging from the speech of Commission President designate Ursula von der Leyen and the priorities of the European Council, financial services will not be very high on the agenda. Apart from the completion of the banking union and capital markets union, nothing specific has been announced so far. However, the newly configured European Parliament, with the addition of representatives of the Liberals as a third group in the top positions and the strength of the Greens, may change the priorities. Von der Leyen has also announced that more right of initiative should be given to the EP, a right that is already part of the Lisbon Treaty but has been seldom used. In the domain of financial services this could lead to more consumer-protection inspired measures. 

The CCD review proposal is expected to be adopted by the new Commission before the end of the year. We dedicated an entire day to the subject at ECRI and discussed the various elements in the Review in a very well-attended seminar. We will continue to follow this issue closely. In the meantime, our ECRI Statistical Package will offer insights into the latest development of consumer credit markets in the EU and beyond. We will also discuss the results of our study on the functioning of credit bureaus in the EU during a debate on September 11th.