Fighting for Fintech: competition, regulation and accountability in a Europe of financial innovation

The post-crisis advent of 'Fintech 3.0' has led to novel modes of financial regulation, with governments increasingly encouraging regulators to actively collaborate with firms seeking market access. This process could potentially reshape the ways in which firms, policymakers and especially regulators are held accountable for their performance. All European countries have embraced Fintech investment but there has been substantial variation in the aggressiveness of national industrial strategies. Tracing the variable approaches of Europe's three largest economies - the UK, France and Germany - this chapter describes how these countries have, to date, adopted different approaches to utilising their financial regulator to support this nascent industry. This, has already led to concerns over how accountability is and might be exercised among different sets of actors - policymakers, regulators, firms and the public. In the likely absence of any forthcoming shift towards pan-European oversights, this competitive, fragmentary trend among European states looks set to continue.