Europe is (again) setting the standard globally
The European Commission’s ambitious 2019 Digital Finance Strategy and related policy initiatives are being implemented at pace. Within a couple of years only, newly emerging ways of providing financial services, and newly emerging financial products, will be matched by relevant sets of rules, spanning from crypto-assets markets to the merger of data economy with finance or the use of artificial intelligence in credit scoring.
Europe is proving that the protection of the interests of market participants and the support for innovative developments in the financial sector are not mutually exclusive. The EU, and with it the EEA, are the only major economy globally to implement such an ambitious and comprehensive agenda.
The global leadership role of the EU is manifest in many other areas, including, for instance, in respect of data privacy. It may achieve an even greater impact as regards the regulation of digital finance.
The bigger part of the job is yet to come
It is true that the European Commission and its co-legislators are close to completing the necessary legislative package. However, implementation and application of the extended rule book at all levels (supervision, compliance, strategic decision making) will require even bigger efforts.
The traditional financial sector as well as start-ups, unicorns and BigTech firms all will have to navigate this comprehensive yet complex regulatory landscape. Relevant authorities, such as supervisors and central banks, will need to build the necessary human and technical resources. Law firms need to invest into professional education of their specialist teams supporting the financial industry. Financial service providers need to educate their policy, legal and compliance teams, and decision makers need to understand the potential that lies in the new regulatory framework.
2022-24: phasing in the necessary skills
The implementation agenda can be expected to accelerate in 2022-24. Primary legislation will be coming into force, and the European Supervisory Authorities will be fast-developing a large number of Level 2 measures, with the application dates within the 2023/24 horizon. Therefore, the agenda for building the necessary capacities needs to be ambitious, too.
The EDFP supports EU and EEA regulatory, legal and policy experts in meeting new challenges and the expectations of this ambitious agenda. Its training events cover the most practically relevant areas of the new regulatory and supervisory landscape and are geared towards immediate practical benefits for participants’ organisations.
The EDFP concentrates on EU law in the area of digital finance. Its courses are designed for executives that will implement or apply the relevant framework, or want to explore relevant opportunities through compliance by design in the context of strategic decision- making.
