On 12 July 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on the status of licencing regimes of FinTech firms across the EU. The report is based on two surveys conducted by ESMA since January 2018, which gathered evidence from Member State national competent authorities (NCAs) on the licencing regimes of FinTech firms in their jurisdictions.

The surveys confirmed that NCAs do not typically distinguish between FinTech and traditional business models in their authorisation and licensing activities since they authorise a financial activity and not a technology.

ESMA concludes that, based on the evidence gathered, that at present most innovative business models can operate within the existing EU rules, and reinforces its conclusions made in the recent reports on crypto-assets/ICOs/DLT, cyber security and innovation facilitators, but does not make additional recommendations for changes in EU regulation at this stage.