The new European legislation will restrict the activity of "fintechs" that are not supervised in Spain. Of all the technology companies that provide financial services in our country, only 10% are under supervision. However, this situation will change with the new Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225 of 18 October 2023 that will restrict the activity of around 350 companies that offer unsupervised financing, subjecting them to supervision by the Bank of Spain.
The Directive was published in October 2023 and the deadline for its transposition is 20 November 2025, to be applied from 20 November 2026.
Thus, this directive will eradicate the current situation in our country, characterised by the lack of supervision in this area, and will limit the activity of providing consumer credit, so that only regulated companies will be able to provide it. In this regard, the legal text itself includes, among other aspects, the need for credit intermediaries to be authorized and included in a register as well as the necessity of supervision by the competent authority.
This new regulation that will bring “fintechs” under supervision of the Bank of Spain, includes the possibility of their being inspected by the financial supervisor. Furthermore, in the event of a problem, customers will be able to file claims to the Bank of Spain's complaints service.
Therefore, the new consumer credit directive will put an end to the current situation of unsupervised “fintech” activity in Spain.