Steven Maijoor delivers keynote at 4th Annual Fintech Conference
Steven Maijoor, Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), has delivered the keynote address at the 4th Annual Fintech Conference in Brussels today.
In his speech, Mr Maijoor focused on, amongst other issues, BigTech financial services: trends and potential growth, the benefits and risks of BigTech in finance, distributed ledger technology (DLT), global stablecoins and the need for a coordinated approach amongst regulators, in particular saying:
• BigTechs in finance may bring benefits such as efficiency gains and personalised services, but also risks. Their data-based business model raises issues around privacy and could facilitate price discrimination. And if competition suffers in the long run, consumers may lose out and markets may face concentration risk; and
• In the area of financial innovation, regulators will increasingly need to cooperate closely and take coordinated action at European level and internationally. A good example is the European Forum for Innovation Facilitators that the three ESAs and the European Commission launched last year.