FiDA withdrawn: why the Commission is dropping the Financial Data Access Regulation

In short

• On 4 November 2026 the European Commission listed the Financial Data Access Regulation (FiDA) among the proposals it intends to withdraw, in its 2027 work programme.
• The official reason: three years with the co-legislators, no trilogues since June 2025, and no prospect of support in the Council.
• FiDA would have given consumers and businesses the right to share their financial data beyond payment accounts, including insurance, pensions and investments, with other firms.
• The withdrawal is not final yet. The European Parliament and the Council can now give their views before the Commission decides.

What is the Commission work programme?

Every autumn the European Commission adopts a work programme for the coming year. It is the Commission's political plan: it sets its priorities and lists the main new laws and strategies it will propose. It also says which pending proposals it wants the Parliament and the Council to agree first, which it intends to withdraw, and which existing laws it plans to repeal.

The 2027 work programme, published on 4 November 2026, focuses on competitiveness and simplification. It has 23 new initiatives, ten of them simplification initiatives, 24 priority pending proposals, 14 planned repeals and 18 proposals to be withdrawn. The proposal for a framework for Financial Data Access is number 5 on the withdrawal list (Annex III). The same list includes the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS), pending for more than ten years and to be replaced by proposals on banking competitiveness in early 2027.

This is not the first time FiDA has faced withdrawal. In February 2025 a leaked work programme marked it for withdrawal, and it survived; trilogues began two months later. This time the decision is in the published document.

Why is FiDA being withdrawn now?

The Commission's reason is short: the file has been with the co-legislators for more than three years, no trilogues have taken place since June 2025, and it is unlikely to secure support in the Council within a reasonable timeframe.

The decision also fits the Commission's simplification agenda. Simplification has been the strongest argument of FiDA's critics from the start: the proposal would bring costs and complexity for financial firms, with too few proven use cases.

There were warning signs. FiDA was not among the priority files in the "One Europe, One Market" roadmap that the three institutions agreed in April 2026.

What would FiDA have built?

The Commission proposed FiDA on 28 June 2023, together with the review of the Payment Services Directive. PSD2 gave customers the right to share their payment account data; FiDA would have extended that idea to almost all of financial services. Its main building blocks were:

1. A wide scope of data. Mortgages, loans and savings; investments, including insurance-based investment products and crypto-assets; occupational and personal pensions, including the PEPP; non-life insurance; and data used to assess the creditworthiness of small firms. Health and sickness insurance were left out.
2. A right for the customer, an obligation for the data holder. Consumers and businesses could choose (but would not be obliged) to share their data. When they did, banks, insurers, investment firms and pension providers would have had to make it available to the customer or to another firm, in a standard, machine-readable format.
3. Permission dashboards. Each data holder would offer a dashboard where customers see who has access to their data and for what purpose, and can withdraw permission at any time.
4. Financial data sharing schemes. Data holders and data users would have to join schemes that agree on common data standards and interfaces, liability for data breaches and dispute resolution. If the market failed to set up a scheme, the Commission could step in.
5. Compensation. Data holders could ask data users for reasonable compensation for building and running the interfaces, with smaller firms paying only cost.
6. A new licence. Firms that are not already regulated financial institutions would need authorisation as financial information service providers, under supervision and subject to DORA's ICT rules.
7. Limits on how data is used. EBA and EIOPA guidelines would prevent customer data from being used against the customer, for example in credit scoring or insurance pricing.

What were the main points of disagreement?

In the negotiations the main questions were whether big tech gatekeepers could become financial information service providers (the Parliament said no), the application dates, the level of fines (the Council raised them significantly), the details of the data sharing schemes and the role of the European Supervisory Authorities. The Council also wanted a gradual start: in its December 2024 position, motor insurance would come first after 24 months, personal pensions after 36 and the rest of insurance and pensions after 48.

Much of the incumbent industry, insurers included, opposed FiDA from the beginning. One argument came back throughout the debate: FiDA would open the door for US big tech to enter European financial and insurance services.

What happens next?

The withdrawal is not final yet. Under the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making, the European Parliament and the Council can now give their views, and the Commission will take them into account before deciding. The Commission has said it intends to withdraw the listed proposals within six months; the withdrawal is then published in the Official Journal.

A reversal is possible in theory and has happened before. Here it is unlikely: the Commission itself does not expect the Council to support the file.

I put a lot of time, thinking and hope into open finance and open insurance, so this is personal for me too. I still believe in the idea. Whether and how it comes back is a question I will return to soon, here on my website.

I also work with public authorities and supervisors around the world, directly or in projects funded by development banks, on designing forward-looking regulatory and supervisory frameworks for open finance. If that is a question for you, get in touch.

Questions and answers

What is FiDA?

FiDA is the Financial Data Access Regulation, the EU's open finance proposal from June 2023. It would have let consumers and businesses share their financial data held by banks, insurers, investment firms and pension providers with other firms, through standard interfaces and with their permission.

Is FiDA withdrawn?

The Commission announced on 4 November 2026 that it intends to withdraw FiDA within six months. The withdrawal becomes final once the Commission has heard the Parliament and the Council and published it in the Official Journal.

Why did the Commission withdraw FiDA?

Because the file had been pending for more than three years, no trilogues had taken place since June 2025, and the Council was unlikely to support it within a reasonable timeframe. The decision also fits the Commission's simplification agenda.

Could FiDA still be saved?

In theory, yes: the Parliament and the Council can give their views and the Commission has reversed withdrawals before. In practice it is unlikely, because the Commission itself sees no support in the Council.

What is the difference between FiDA and PSD2?

PSD2 covers payment account data only. FiDA would have covered most other financial data, such as savings, loans, investments, pensions and non-life insurance.

Which firms would FiDA have covered?

Almost all EU-regulated financial firms, including banks, payment and e-money institutions, investment firms, crypto-asset service providers, fund managers, insurers, insurance intermediaries, occupational pension funds and PEPP providers.