12. May 2026

FiDA (Financial Data Access): What you need to know now

The EU is pushing ahead with the next major piece of legislation in the financial sector: Financial Data Access (FiDA). The new legislative package is expected to come into force at the end of 2026. The aim is to facilitate the sharing of financial data in order to strengthen competition within the EU. Read on to find out what this means for consumers and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for the businesses affected.

What is FiDA (Financial Data Access)?

FiDA is a proposed EU regulation designed to standardise and regulate access to financial data. At present, financial data is mostly held in silos by individual providers, such as banks or insurance companies. FiDA aims to break down these silos and enable a controlled exchange of data – always with the customer’s consent. Essentially, the aim is to allow consumers to decide for themselves who may use their financial data and for what purpose. At the same time, the European market is to be strengthened through increased competition.

New opportunities for businesses

Authorised parties can request and consolidate data from other institutions. This makes previously isolated information usable.

This presents strategic opportunities for data users:

Holistic advice: An insurer or bank can view a customer’s share portfolio or pension status held with a competitor and make more tailored offers.

Efficient processes: Onboarding processes and portfolio analyses can be automated more easily, as data flows directly in digital form from the source institution, rather than having to check documents manually.

Intelligent cross-selling: By analysing third-party contract data, gaps in cover or overpriced terms offered by competitors can be identified and replaced with optimised offers.

Seamless platform ecosystems: The integration of third-party data enables firms to position themselves as a central hub for the customer’s entire financial management and strengthen customer loyalty to their own organisation.

FinTechs and InsurTechs in particular stand to benefit, as they can develop new, user-centric solutions without having to build extensive in-house infrastructures.

“The era of PDFs is over. With FiDA, data is finally becoming fluid. Those who choose the right strategy now will benefit from the new regulation.”

Aileen Pick, Team Cloud Compliance & Governance

Obligations for businesses

Anyone who uses data is also responsible for its security. The companies concerned must ensure that they work exclusively with certified financial information service providers (FISPs). At the same time, the exclusive use of customer data is no longer viable. Competitors gain the same access (with the customer’s permission).

In the role of data owner, this brings new obligations, but also opportunities:

Permission dashboards: A crucial element for implementing permission-based data sharing is permission dashboards, through which users can manage their consents independently. Companies are obliged to provide such solutions.

APIs as a foundation: Companies must offer standardised, FiDA-compliant interfaces so that systems can communicate securely and interoperably with one another.

Compensation: Unlike PSD2, FiDA provides for data owners to be appropriately compensated for the provision of data. A regulated marketplace for data is thus created.

Would you like to know what this means for your business in detail?

My team and I would be happy to help you identify your specific challenges and work with you to determine and tackle the most important steps.

Please get in touch!

Benefits for consumers

For consumers, FiDA means, above all, greater transparency regarding their own financial data. At the same time, key financial data can be retrieved automatically, rather than having to go to the trouble of submitting it as a PDF. This makes credit decisions, for example, significantly faster and less bureaucratic.

In everyday life, this means:

1. Everything at a glance:

Instead of logging into five different apps to keep track of your current account, private pension insurance, share portfolio and car loan, FiDA interfaces provide a convenient overview of everything within a single app.

2. Automated price comparison & switching:

As third-party providers (with permission) have access to contract terms and conditions, algorithms can proactively suggest better offers and the switch can be made in just a few clicks.

3. Personalised financial advice (robo-advice):

FiDA makes financial advice more accurate and affordable. Advisers (human or digital) can tailor recommendations to actual spending habits. The risk of duplicate insurance or unsuitable investment products is reduced.

Frequently asked questions about FiDA

Source: EUR-Lex, das offizielle Rechtsinformationssystem der EU (6 May 2026)

FiDA is currently still going through the legislative process. It is expected to come into force at the end of 2026. Once FiDA has been adopted, there will be a transition period, as is customary with EU regulations. The current draft stipulates that companies will have approximately 18 to 24 months to implement the new requirements. The introduction is expected to take place in stages. This means that certain data categories and stakeholders will be included earlier, with other areas following at a later date.
FiDA builds directly on the existing EU PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) directive. This introduced what is known as open banking, which allows customers to grant third-party providers access to their account data. A well-known example of this principle in action is the Finanzguru app, which aggregates and analyses accounts held with various banks.

FiDA takes this a step further. Open banking becomes open finance. This means that not only bank data, but also insurance data, investments and crypto assets are included. This creates a significantly broader ecosystem for data-driven financial services.
The penalty provisions for FiDA have not yet been finalised. However, the current draft already sets out a specific range of penalties: legal entities are likely to face fines of up to €50,000 per infringement, with a cap of €500,000 per year or up to 2 per cent of total annual turnover. For natural persons, fines of up to €25,000 per infringement and a maximum of €250,000 per year are currently envisaged.
FiDA is expanding data access from current accounts (Open Banking) to almost all areas of finance (Openx Finance). An overview of the key data categories:

Investments & Securities: Information on shares, funds and securities.

Insurance: Data on property insurance (e.g. liability or home contents).

Loans & Financing: Details on loans, mortgages and credit facilities.

Pension provision: Status of pension entitlements and private pension schemes.

Crypto assets: Holdings and transactions involving crypto assets.

Savings: Data on savings accounts and fixed-term deposits.

Only raw data is shared. Interpreted information, such as credit ratings, is excluded from the sharing requirement for the time being.
FiDA is aimed at organisations that work with financial data. These include:

Banks and building societies

Insurance companies

Investment firms and asset managers

Crypto providers

Pension funds (including PEPP providers)

Payment service providers (PSPs)

FinTechs, comparison websites and data aggregators

How can you prepare for FiDA now?

Even though many details of the regulation have not yet been finalised, one thing is clear: FiDA will have a profound impact on existing processes, systems and business models. That is precisely why it is worth setting the right course at an early stage. Ensure transparency: what financial data does your company hold? How is it processed, stored and shared? And where will interfaces with third parties arise in future?

Don’t view FiDA merely as a compliance issue. The regulation also changes market mechanisms and opens up new opportunities for data-driven services. Those who prepare now can act proactively rather than merely reacting.

You don’t have to go it alone. We can support you with our expertise, particularly when it comes to technical issues surrounding interfaces, data architectures and potential dashboard concepts. Get in touch with us. Together, we’ll analyse your current situation, identify areas for action and develop viable solutions.