MEP Josef Weidenholzer kindly hosted our recent workshop focused on Actions 7 and 9 of the Commission’s Action Plan on Consumer Finance Services Action Plan. Mr Weidenholzer opened the proceedings, followed by impulse statements from Renatas Mazeika, Head of Unit, DG JUST, European Commission; Olivier Jerusalmy, Senior Research & Advocacy Adviser, FinanceWatch; Enrique Velazquez, Director-General, ACCIS; Nadia Hazeveld, Legal Adviser, Eurofinas.

MEP Weidenholzer and speakers at the ERFF technical workshop 27th March

With the Commission currently mapping how credit is assessed and provided across the EU, the workshop was a timely opportunity to look at practical challenges to exchanging data on creditworthiness and offering consumers credit across borders. Insights from policy, consumer and business perspectives generated a lively solutions-focused discussion. This covered topics such as the use of bank statement data to assess creditworthiness, the reasons behind consumer over indebtedness and exclusion, and the creation of standardized categories to help harmonize data used in credit assessments across the EU.