On 10 October 2019, the European Commission (Commission) published a speech given by Margrethe Vestager (Competition Commissioner) at the SRB Conference 2019. The speech was entitled A level playing field for banks in the Union.

In her speech Competition Commissioner Vestager discusses the Commission’s response to the financial crisis of 2008, competition control in the Banking Union and addressing non-performing loans. In the final part of her speech Competition Commissioner Vestager discusses the future noting the following:

• the Commission is planning to produce a report that will map out its state aid decisions. This will be useful to inform its future reflections;
• the Commission needs to continue to tackle legacy problems from the financial crisis such as bad loans and bad bank governance; and
• in terms of new challenges on the horizon, digital transformation is affecting financial services just as much as any other industry in Europe. To fully unlock the potential of digitisation FinTech companies need to be given a real chance to compete whilst also making sure there is a level playing field between all financial services providers especially when it comes to the regulatory framework.