EU Fintech's Hidden Border Problem: What Supervisors Just Heard

Alejandro Martínez · 2026-10-01

The European single market for financial services has existed on paper since 1993. The idea was simple: get licensed in one member state, and you should be able to operate across the entire Union thanks to the European passport. Sounds great, right? But in practice, fintechs trying to use that passport keep running into walls that nobody warned them about. That's exactly why the European Digital Finance Association (EDFA) and France FinTech launched Bridging Borders. The first edition in November 2025 brought national supervisors and fintechs into the same room to talk about the real obstacles companies face when expanding. It went so well that supervisors themselves asked for round two. On September 23, 2026, France FinTech hosted the second Bridging Borders under EDFA's guidance. About 40 people showed up, including 20 representatives from supervisory authorities. Instead of abstract policy talk, the discussion centered on concrete cases from fintechs operating in multiple member states. The goal? Understand where EU rules and on-the-ground reality diverge, and figure out how to fix it. ### The European Passport: Great in Theory, Messy in Practice In principle, a company licensed in its home state can operate anywhere in the EU. In reality, many fintechs still face local administrative requirements that don't clearly stem from EU law. These demands complicate, slow down, or even block cross-border expansion altogether. Here are a few examples that came up during the talks: - **Finqware** mapped complaint channels available to account information service providers (TPPs) across 30 EEA jurisdictions. Only 10 offer a channel that a cross-border player can actually use. And just 4 publish a response deadline. - **Memo Bank** documented similar headaches accessing national beneficial ownership registers. In Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain, access still requires a local presence or a national electronic ID—even when the institution operates legally under free provision of services. - **Mifundo** put numbers on credit data fragmentation. 45 million European consumers have financial history in more than one member state. Yet access to the data needed for creditworthiness assessment depends on wildly different national conditions. Out of 41 European registers Mifundo approached, 19 granted access, 15 are still in discussion, and 7 refused—including in France, Belgium, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, and the Netherlands. - **Lemonway** highlighted two sources of fragmentation for payment service providers. First, countries define PSP agent status differently. Second, AML/CFT obligations vary in procedures, renewal cycles, and reporting requirements. ### API Quality: Beyond Just Being Available The conversation also tackled bank interface performance. For fintechs, an API being available isn't enough if the user journey remains unstable, unclear, or hard to use. API quality directly determines whether open banking actually works and whether end users get smooth services. As one participant put it: "A live API that nobody can use is just a checkbox, not a solution." That quote stuck with me. It captures the gap between compliance and real-world functionality. Supervisors want to see innovation thrive. Fintechs want to scale without drowning in paperwork. But the current patchwork of national implementations makes both goals harder to reach. The second Bridging Borders didn't produce instant fixes. But it did create something valuable: a direct, honest dialogue between the people writing the rules and the people living with them. And that's a start. ### What Comes Next The EDFA and France FinTech plan to keep the conversation going. More editions are likely, with a focus on turning identified friction points into actionable recommendations. For fintechs eyeing cross-border growth, staying tuned to these discussions could save months of frustration. After all, the single market was supposed to make things easier—not harder. It's time the reality matched the promise.