Cross sectoral work

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The Joint Committee also undertakes work related to other cross-sectoral issues, such as the regulation of benchmarks, structured financial products (securitisation), credit rating agencies and others.

The European Forum for Innovation Facilitators (EFIF) provides a platform for supervisors to regularly share experiences from their engagement with firms through innovation facilitators, to exchange technological expertise, and to reach common views on the regulatory treatment of innovative products, services and business models.

The EFIF was established following the 2019 Joint ESA report on regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs which identified the need for greater coordination and cooperation between innovation facilitators to support the scaling up of FinTech across the EU single market. The 2019 report was updated in 2023 and presents, besides a list of innovation facilitators in the EEA, recommendations and considerations towards national competent authorities (NCAs), the ESAs and the European Commission to further enhance the role and efficiency of innovation facilitators in the financial sector. 

The 2023 Joint ESAs Report on Innovation Facilitators is available here

The EU Digital Finance Platform is a new collaborative space bringing together industry and public authorities. Among other functionalities, such as the European fintech map, it enables the cross-border testing framework. You will find here the innovation facilitators in the EU.

Innovation hubs

As of October 2023, 41 innovation hubs exist across 30 countries in the EEA. 
 

Country

Name of the innovation hub

Link to

innovation hub

Year of establishment

Cross-sectorial coverage

Banking/Payments

Insurance

Securities/Markets

Austria

Sandbox & FinTech Contact Point

Link

2016

X

X

X

Belgium

FinTech portal

Link

2016

X

X

X

Bulgaria

Innovation hub 

Link

2019

 

X

X

Croatia

CNB Innovation Hub

Link

2019

X

 

 

Croatia

Hanfa Innovation Hub

Link

.

 

X

X

Cyprus

CBC Innovation Hub

Link

2022

X

 

 

Cyprus

CYSEC Innovation Hub

Link

2018

 

 

X

Czechia

FinTech contact point

Link

2019

X

X

X

Denmark

FinTech Team

Link

.

X

X

 

Estonia

Innovation Hub

Link

2021

X

X

X

Finland

Innovation Help Desk

Link

2016

X

X

X

France

Pôle FinTech et Innovation

Link

2016

X

X

 

France

Innovation & Digital Finance Hub

Link

2016

 

 

X

Germany

FinTech Innovation Hub

Link

2017

X

X

X

Greece

BoG FinTech Innovation Hub

Link

2019

X

X

 

Greece

HCMC Innovation Hub

Link

2019

 

 

X

Hungary

MNB Innovation Hub or InnoHub

Link

2018

X

X

X

Iceland

Sedlabank FinTech Helpdesk

Link

2019

X

X

X

Ireland

Central Bank of Ireland Innovation Hub

Link

2018

X

X

X

Italy

Milano Hub – Innovation Center of Bank of Italy

Link

2021

X

X

X

Italy

Canale Insurtech

Link

2016

 

X

 

Italy

Canale FinTech

Link

2017

X

X

X

Italy

LIFTECH

Link

2021

 

 

X

Latvia

Innovation hub Inovāciju centrs

Link

2017

X

X

X

Liechtenstein

Regulatory Laboratory / Financial Innovation

Link

2018

X

X

X

Lithuania

LB Newcomer Programme

Link

2018

X

X

X

Luxembourg

Innovation Hub

Link

2020

X

 

X

Malta

Innovation Office

Link

2018

X

X

X

Netherlands

AFM, DNB, ACM Innovation Hub

Link

2016

X

X

X

Norway

Finanstilsynet Guide to FinTech businesses

Link

2019

X

X

X

Poland

The KNF Innovation Hub Program

Link

2018

X

X

X

Portugal

CMVM Innovation Hub

Link

2022

 

 

X

Portugal

Portugal FinLab - Where regulation meets innovation

Link

2018

X

X

X

Portugal

FinTech+

Link

2018

X

 

 

Romania

ASF FinTech Innovation Hub

Link

2019

X

X

X

Romania

FinTech Innovation Hub

Link

2019

X

 

 

Slovakia

Inovačný hub (Innovation hub)

Link

2019

X

X

X

Slovenia

Banka Slovenije's FinTech Innovation Hub

Link

2019

X

 

 

Spain

Queries on technological innovation

Link

2021

X

 

 

Spain

Portal FinTech

Link

2016

 

 

X

Sweden

Innovation Center

Link

2018

X

X

X

 

Regulatory sandboxes

As of October 2023, 14 regulatory sandboxes exist across 12 countries in the EEA. 

Country

Name of the regulatory sandbox

Link to regulatory sandbox

Year of establishment

Cross-sectorial coverage

Banking/Payments

Insurance

Securities/Markets

Austria

Sandbox & Fintech Contact Point

Link

2020

X

X

X

Denmark

FT Lab

Link

2018

X

X

X

Estonia

Sandbox

Link

2023

X

X

X

Greece

Bank of Greece Regulatory Sandbox

Link

2021

X

X

 

Hungary

MNB Innovation Hub - Regulatory Sandbox (Financial Innovation Testing Environment - FITE as defined in the MNB Decree)

Link

2018

X

X

X

Italy

IVASS Sandbox Regolamentare

Link

2021

 

X

 

Italy

Banca d’Italia Regulatory sandbox

Link

2021

X

 

 

Italy

CONSOB Regulatory Sandbox

Link

2021

X

X

X

Latvia

Bank of Latvia Regulatory Sandbox 

Link

2017

X

 

 

Lithuania

Regulatory Sandbox

Link

2018

X

X

X

Malta

MFSA FinTech Regulatory Sandbox

Link

2020

X

X

X

Norway

Finanstilsynet's regulatory sandbox

Link

2019

X

X

X

Slovakia

Regulačný sandbox

Link

2022

X

X

X

Spain

Espacio controlado de pruebas (Controlled testing environment)

Link

2020

X

X

X

For further information on the procedural framework for cross-border testing click here.

The EFIF Taxonomy of Financial Innovation helps the ESAs and the EFIF members to classify financial innovation by i) sector, ii) service and activities and iii) enabling technology(-ies) with the aim of supporting their innovation monitoring tasks and policy-related work. The Taxonomy of Financial Innovation is not meant to be binding, nor is it meant to be exhaustive. Rather, it is meant to be indicative to cater to the evolving nature of financial innovations. The Taxonomy of Financial Innovation is complemented by a Glossary.

For further information about the EFIF, see the Terms of Reference.

The Joint Committee acts as a forum for the exchange of supervisory information, experiences and practices on financial conglomerates, through which the ESAs develop joint positions and agree on common acts in this area.

As part of its responsibilities, the Joint Committee maintains and publishes a list of identified financial conglomerates as required under the Financial Conglomerates Directive (Directive 2002/87/EC).

List of financial conglomerates 2023

The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) promote transparency, simplicity and fairness in the market for consumer financial products or services, including by reviewing and coordinating financial literacy and education initiatives by the competent authorities. The three ESAs closely cooperate in the area of Financial Education in order to maximise the impact of their respective efforts.

Joint projects in 2022 include:

Regulation (EU) 2019/2088) (the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) sets out ESG disclosure requirements for a broad range of financial market participants, financial advisers and financial products. The European Commission has published in the Official Journal the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288. The delegated regulation was updated in 2023 and published by the European Commission in the Official Journal as Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/363. For the convenience of financial market participants preparing the financial product disclosures referred to in Articles 8, 9 and 11 of the SFDR, the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA) provide an editable version of the templates contained in that Regulation. Please note that the ESAs accept no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the editable version. Only European Union documents published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) are deemed authentic. For further information, please consult the legal notice of the OJ.

The European Supervisory Authorities have also published an updated supervisory statement on the application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and a statement providing clarifications on the draft Regulatory Technical Standards issued under SFDR.