Consumers take centre-stage in EU financial services debate[fr][de] 

A Green Paper , adopted by the Commission on 30 April 2007, sets out the overarching objectives of the EU policy on retail financial services and aims to "deepen the Commission's understanding of the problems faced by consumers and industry in this area".

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: "We want to create a real single market for retail financial services and bring a range of tangible benefits to European consumers."

The public debate launched with the Green Paper focuses on financial products, purchased by individual consumers in their everyday lives, such as bank accounts, loans, mortgages, investments and insurances.

This could for instance make it easier for consumers to switch from one bank to another or take profit from the whole range of offers across Europe when considering taking credit.

The paper states that despite significant progress in recent years, markets are not fully integrated and lack sufficient competition in certain areas, which prevents consumers from reaping the benefits of lower prices.

The Commission sets out three main objectives:

• The opening of markets and strengthening of competition, in order to improve choice and quality of products for consumers;
• consumer protection and ensuring financial soundness of providers to boost consumer confidence, and;
• empowering consumers by increasing financial literacy and transparency of information.

Spokesman Oliver Drewes said that the Commission would only go on to propose legislation if the results proved that there was more action needed. However, the paper suggests that the Commission is likely to get tough on ensuring consumer rights for financial services across the EU.

Andreas Zehnder, managing director of the European Federation of Building Societies (EFBS) said: "We are pleased with the Commission's findings that a functioning internal market will not be achieved by minimum harmonisation of the consumer-protection rules."