Insurance and Pension Denmark (I&P Denmark) has welcomed the European Commission’s (EC) withdrawal of the financial data sharing (FIDA) proposal, calling it a positive development for the pension and insurance industries, which will no longer have to build new digital infrastructure without guaranteed business or socio-economic gains.

The EC’s Work Programme, published yesterday (4 November), confirmed the withdrawal of the FIDA proposal.

The proposal would oblige the financial sector to develop and build a digital infrastructure so customers could share their financial data with other companies.

I&P Denmark head of digitalisation policy, Sigrid Floor Toft, said: “This is very good news. We were facing a very extensive and costly task for insurance and pension companies to develop and establish a completely new digital infrastructure that would have negatively affected the sector's competitiveness. So, we are relieved.”

Floor Toft suggested that technological development, not least in artificial intelligence (AI), has created new opportunities for using and sharing data across sectors.

Given this, she said that there is also reason to question whether the FIDA proposal's model and approach have kept up with the times.

“AI has already caught up with the idea and made it obsolete, so if the proposal had been implemented, it would have entailed very heavy administrative and financial burdens – with no guarantee of socio-economic and business gains,” she explained.

“The risk was that we could actually end up financing the tech companies' business development, because they have a great interest in gaining access to and using customers' financial data, while the bill would ultimately end up with the consumers.

“It is therefore positive that the Commission has now listened to our concerns and is withdrawing the proposal.”

Floor Toft also pointed out that good solutions for data sharing already exist.

“Basically, it is positive that customers will have better opportunities to share their financial data and get more coherent advice and services,” she continued.

“The Danish pension industry has already been working on this for more than 20 years through PensionsInfo.dk, where customers can get a comprehensive overview of their pensions across companies, banks and other players.

“Data sharing creates the greatest value for customers and society when the solutions are developed through collaboration and are based on a real need – not on politically determined requirements and theoretical expectations for the market of the future.”

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