Upcoming events
The Joint ESAs Consumer Protection Day 2016
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) is pleased to announce that the 4th "Joint ESAs Consumer Protection Day" will take place on 16 September 2016 in Paris. For the first time, the ESAs will livestream the event so that the content is available to everyone. The event aims to promote exchanges of views on consumer protection topics between regulators, consumer representatives and the finance industry.
Since its inception, the Consumer Protection Day has become an important milestone for stakeholders across the EU that have an interest in the topic of consumer protection. In June 2015, the third annual Joint ESAs Consumer Protection Day hosted by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) in Frankfurt attracted over 300 consumer representatives, academics, consultants, national supervisors, experts from EU institutions and members of the financial services industry.
Consumer and investor protection is a common statutory objective of the three ESAs - the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and EIOPA. The Joint ESAs Consumer Protection Day aims to gather consumers, regulators and industry participants to discuss consumer protection-related issues in the financial services area.
Click here for the event livestream.
Keynote speech by Commissioner Jonathan Hill
Jonathan Hill is the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union
PANEL 1 - A truly European market for retail financial services?
This panel will discuss a number of important questions:
- Does the current EU regulatory framework, and specifically the EU passporting regime of financial products and services, fully realise the potential of the EU single market for European consumers?
- What are the main issues consumers are facing?
- Will the single market financial services directives such as the Mortgage Credit Directive, Payment Accounts Directive, Insurance Distribution Directive and Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II succeed in achieving an integrated single market ensuring a high level of protection for consumers?
- What changes will the Capital Markets Union and Action Plan on Retail Financial Services bring to consumers?
- What role can the ESAs play in this context?
PANEL 2 - Big Data in the financial sector
The ever increasing use of big data is revolutionising the way products and services are marketed. It creates opportunities and challenges for financial institutions and regulators. Big Data enables to profile consumers, identify patterns of consumption and make targeted offers. This raises questions about firms' expected behaviours in order to comply with their overarching obligations: are the sectoral regulatory frameworks adequate to address the challenges raised by Big Data and which regulatory and/or supervisory measures could be taken to address this new trend?
PANEL 3 - The supervision of consumer protection requirements in the EU: the expectations towards the ESAs in respect of product oversight and governance, remuneration, and PRIIPs
Throughout 2015/16, EBA, EIOPA and ESMA published a number of regulatory requirements in fulfilment of their consumer protection mandates in the banking, insurance and investment sectors. These include guidelines or technical advice on product oversight and governance which require manufacturers to identify target markets, carry out product testing, take remedial action, and choose appropriate distribution channels. The technical standards for the Key Information Document (KID) under the PRIIPS Regulation, in turn, are aimed at helping investors to better understand and compare the key features, risk, rewards and costs between different packaged retail and insurance-based investment products. And, finally, the requirements related to sales incentives and the remuneration of sales staff are aimed at improving the links between incentives and the fair treatment of consumers, so as to reduce the risk of mis-selling and resultant conduct costs for firms.
As these requirements are about to enter into force in 2017/18, the three ESAs would like to hear the views from industry, national regulators and consumer associations as to their expectations on how the ESAs should go about their statutory objective of bringing about supervisory convergence across the EU, for the abovementioned sets of requirements.
More details on the panels and participants to follow.
For the first time, the ESAs are going to livestream the event in order to make its content available to everyone.
We regret that attendance in person is by invitation only due to limited places.
Date and Time
16 September 2016, 10:30 to 17:15 Central European Summer Time (CEST)
Registration for persons attending in person will start at 9.15 CEST
The streaming will start from 10:15 CEST
Location and Directions
The event will be held at the Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel, 17 Boulevard Saint-Jacques, Paris, 75014 France.
For directions to the hotel, click here.
Accommodation
Participants are asked to make their own accommodation arrangements, as relevant.
Contact
Please contact us at Joint-ESAs-Consumer-Protection-Day-2016@esma.europa.eu for further information.
See also the Joint ESAs Consumer Protection Day 2015 on the ESAs websites: