The provisions on payment services enacted by EU institutions, and recently entered into force, are susceptible to leading to a real revolution in the ecosystem of financial markets. The new rules, having an impact also on the everyday life of European citizens, pose significant challenges for regulators both at the national and the supranational level. Against this background, the present Project aims at fostering dissemination of knowledge and skills with respect to the benefits and risks related to the Open Banking scheme, involving public and private actors who play a role in different areas, including policy-makers, credit institutions, providers of payment services, consumers’ organizations.
The Project will be articulated into five events: after the kick-off meeting (at a very early stage in the Project like cycle), the following initiatives will take place: a workshop (scheduled for the second semester), two thematic conferences (third semester) and a general conference (at the conclusion of the activities).
The opening event will be held in the premises of the University of Siena, and is conceived as an illustration of the Project and its goals, not only to the academic community, but also to national and local stakeholders, either public or private entities. On the same occasion, keynote speeches will be given, with the presenters focusing on the influence of EU policies and legislation in the field of payment services; the introductory debate will be concerned also on the organization of the activities for the implementation of the Project.
The subsequent events will be devoted to the analysis of more specific topics covered by the Project: the workshop (Alcalá de Henares, Spain) is going to deal with the general regime of payment services and the protection of the clients; one of the thematic conference (Poland) will address critical issues pertaining to contracts and payments in the current digital scenarios, while the other conference (Rome, Italy) will focus on the intersection between payment services and antitrust.
The final event (Siena, Italy) will be structured as a 3-days conference with the purpose of permitting a dialogue between the most engaged speakers and attendees of the previous events together, on the one side, and a number of entities involved in the Open Banking revolution (such as practitioners, policy-makers, representatives of public administrations and agencies, consumers’ associations), on the other side.
All the events have as their main objective the promotion of information, and the dissemination of knowledge and skills among the different agents affected by the renovation in payment systems. The identification of the critical aspects and the assessment of the legal, economic and social implications will contribute to boost the fairness of the commercial decisions unilaterally taken by professionals operating in the field of payment services as well as to increase the awareness of consumers. Furthermore, a set of recommendations will be outlined and offered for consideration to decision-makers.
The dissemination and exploitation strategies are going to be supported by the development and implementation of different deliverables: in addition to this website, in order to provide information about the objectives, the tools and the results achieved, the Project will have an account in the most popular social networks in order to reach a broader audience and to stimulate an interactive discussion on the topics addressed; learning tools and materials will be prepared; a book will be published in order to disseminate the results.