Sector & service specialists

The EU maintains a robust regulatory framework for financial stability, investor protection, and market integrity, overseen by the European Commission, EBA, ESMA, and EIOPA. The centralisation of financial services regulation since the 2008 crisis drove massive growth in the Brussels banking, insurance, and financial services community. Some of the largest Brussels trade associations – European Banking Federation, Insurance Europe, Invest Europe – represent this sector. 

The Savings and Investments Union (SIU) is the centrepiece of EU financial services policy in 2026. The SIU’s ambition goes beyond the Capital Markets Union it supersedes: it aims to channel Europe’s abundant savings more productively toward investment, reduce fragmentation in banking markets, and close the gap with the US financial system that has widened significantly. As ECB Director-General John Berrigan noted in May 2026, ‘no EU member state has a domestic financial system big enough to be a relevant global economic player today.’ The SIU is as much a competitiveness project as a financial reform. 

Key legislative priorities progressing through 2026 include: the PSD3/PSR payments package; open finance (Financial Data Access framework); the retail investor strategy; securitisation simplification; and EuVECA venture capital fund reforms. The digital euro project continues to divide the sector, with banks warning against deposit flight risks while the ECB frames central bank digital currency as a long-term sovereignty project. Digital assets continue to generate regulatory activity – MiCAR is now fully operational, with enhanced supervision and potential enforcement actions expected, and the Commission is under pressure on multi-issuance stablecoins in light of the US GENIUS Act. 

AI in financial services is moving from horizon-scanning to compliance reality. The AI Act requires banks to establish transparent governance structures for AI system integration. DORA – the Digital Operational Resilience Act – is in full implementation, requiring enhanced supervision of in-scope firms. US tariffs and global trade tensions have raised loan loss provision expectations and created headwinds for European banks, with Moody’s raising its global default rate forecast. On competition, the ECB and Commission are actively reviewing whether current EU banking rules adequately enable European banks to achieve the scale needed to compete globally – including reconsidering merger rules.