The change in EU privacy rules, which would make it harder for lenders to collect and keep personal data, prompted a lobbying campaign against this move by banks. These maintain that the law would make it more difficult for them to detect fraud or automatically grant loans and would hurt online services. However, BEUC, the European Consumer Organization, believes the worries are exaggerated and welcomes this move which makes banks more transparent and could “curb their appetite for data”.
The European Parliament and national governments are pushing to strike a deal regarding the regulation by the end of the year. While lobbyists fear that the new standards might prohibit international transfers of data even when it is intended to aid detection and prevention of criminal behavior. This opinion however, is challenged by the European Commission, which says that banks will still be able to collect the data necessary for complying with other legal obligations, like tackling money-laundering.
The Commission also underlined the fact that the new rules will simplify bank regulation, as they will be applied all over Europe, adding that measures have been included in the new law in order for banks not to have to comply with requests from people who wanted to erase poor credit history or to hide their financial records for criminal reasons.
FT article: "Banks warn over European privacy rules"