On September 5, 2018, the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities published a joint report on automation in financial advice. The Report follows the ESA's 2015 joint discussion paper and follow-up report in 2016. The Report provides a summary of recent sectoral work by the ESAs in this area and the main findings of a survey with national regulators on the evolution of automation in financial advice in the securities, banking and insurance sectors. The ESAs observed that automated services are more often offered through partnerships between established financial intermediaries and FinTech firms than by FinTech firms alone. The ESAs also found that automation in financial advice has grown slowly and that the number of firms and customers involved is still limited. As a result, the ESAs do not consider that any of the previously identified risks have materialized and therefore that further action is unnecessary at this stage. The ESAs will conduct a new monitoring exercise if and when market developments and risks merit the work.
The report is available at: https://esas-joint-committee.europa.eu/Publications/Reports/JC%202018%2029%20-%20JC%20Report%20on%20automation%20in%20financial%20advice.pdf
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