1. What are retail financial services? Retail or consumer financial services are financial services offered to ordinary consumers, meaning they are sold to and used by citizens at retail level. This covers a wide array of products: retail banking and current accounts, payment services, credit cards, mortgages and other credit and different kinds of insurance (e.g. life, travel, motor, health or home insurance). 2. Why is this consultation needed? Retail financial services markets are not yet as integrated as they could be in...

Today, I want to talk about financial services not from the institutional point of view, from the point of view of the consumer; about how the Single Market can bring real benefits to make people's daily lives easier and better. Today, we don't have a real single market for financial services.Only three per cent of consumers have used bank services in another EU Member State. Only one per cent of loans in the euro area are made across borders. Credit...

The abbreviation ANFA stands for Agreement on Net Financial Assets. It is an agreement between the 19 national central banks (NCBs) of the euro area and the ECB, which together form the Eurosystem. The agreement sets rules and a limit for holdings which are related to national tasks of the NCBs. Non-monetary policy assets of national central banks can be related, for example, to the NCB’s employee pension funds, NCB foreign reserves, the counterpart to their capital and accounting...

The European Commission has formally requested Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden to fully implement the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (DGSD). The European Commission has formally requested Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Sloveniaand Sweden to fully implement the Deposit Guarantee Schemes' Directive (Directive 2014/49/EU, DGSD). This Directive, which builds upon the previous Directive 94/19/EC of 1994, improves the protection of deposits. Depositors will benefit from quicker pay-outs and a stronger safety net as more unified funding requirements will...

Overview by policy area In its monthly package of infringement decisions, the European Commission is pursuing legal action against Member States for failing to comply with their obligations under EU law. These decisions, covering many sectors and EU policy areas (see Annex), aim to ensure proper application of EU law for the benefit of citizens and businesses. The key decisions taken by the Commission (including 4 letters of formal notice, 34 reasoned opinions, and 9 referrals to the Court of Justice...

Latvia continues to make steady progress. Unemployment continues to fall, and now stands at just under 10 percent, half its crisis peak. The current account deficit remains modest, and inflation is picking up slowly towards the euro area target. While overall economic sentiment shows little change, consumer confidence has reached levels not seen since the crisis. The supply of bank lending, though still shrinking, shows some signs of stabilizing. Growth appears to be accelerating. This is despite somewhat softer growth...

Delivering on its Digital Single Market strategy, the Commission today presents two proposals to better protect consumers who shop online across the EU and help businesses expand their online sales. One of the Digital Market Strategy's pillars is to ensure better access for consumers and businesses to online goods and services across Europe. E-commerce is growing, but its full potential remains untapped both for businesses and consumers in Europe: only 12% of EU retailers sell online to consumers in other...