To what extent does European law ensure a level playing field for fintechs in the payment services sector?

ABSTRACT Fintechs are crucial to ensuring Europe’s transition to a digital economy. In its Digital Finance Strategy, the Commission endorses the need to ensure a level playing field in the provision of digital financial services. However, the dominant position that banks hold in the European economy has enabled them to engage in abusive practices, such as the refusal to grant access to data to fintechs. Such a practice could also occur among bigtechs, which are soon to become dominant players in the payment services sphere. The first part of this article pertains to the Payment Services Directive II and to what extent it has contributed towards levelling the playing field between banks and fintechs. The second part of this paper analyses the extent to which provisions of the proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA) could help contribute towards levelling the playing field between bigtechs and fintechs.