| Abstract: | Magistro darbe analizuojamas Europos Sąjungos bankininkystės srities reglamentavimas ir jo įtaka skaitmeninių bankų konkurencijai Europos Sąjungoje. Didesnis dėmesys yra skiriamas būtent skaitmeninei bankininkystei, kuri, aktyviau pradėjusi reikštis XXI amžiaus antrajame dešimtmetyje, siekia pakeisti tradicinės bankininkystės taisykles. Pirmiausia, trumpai apžvelgiama skaitmeninės bankininkystės istorija ir samprata, kad būtų galima suprasti kaip tokio tipo bankai atsirado. Taip pat, trumpai apžvelgiama paskutinė statistika apie bankininkystę Europos Sąjungoje. Galiausiai, yra aprašomi tam tikri aspektai, pagal kuriuos galima atskirti tradicinį banką nuo skaitmeninio, apžvelgiami jų trūkumai ir pranašumai. Antrajame šio mokslinio darbo skyriuje yra nagrinėjamas Europos Sąjungos teisinis reglamentavimas, liečiantis bankininkystės sritį Europos Sąjungoje. Aprašomi pasirinkti teisės aktai, kurie yra svarbiausi Europos Sąjungos bankininkystės paslaugas teikiančioms finansų įstaigoms. Palyginimui, pateikiama ir kitų užsienio teisinių sistemų – Jungtinių Amerikos Valstijų ir Lietuvos - bankininkystės teisiniai reglamentavimai, tam kad būtų galima suprasti skirtumus tarp konkurencijos sąlygų ir požiūrio į skaitmeninę bankininkystę. Trečiajame šio darbo skyriuje yra analizuojamos konkurencijos tarp tradicinių ir skaitmeninių bankų teisinės problemos. Į išskirtas problemas pažvelgiama giliau, tam kad būtų galima suprasti, kaip jos įtakoja konkurencines sąlygas Europos Sąjungos bankininkystės srityje. Pateikiamos konfliktuojančių teisės aktų nuostatos ir, remiantis įvairiais šaltiniais, siūlomos alternatyvos, kurios galėtų padėti sprendžiant konkurencijos problemas. Taip pat pateikiama keletas teisinės praktikos pavyzdžių, kurie parodo, kaip aprašomos konkurencinės problemos gali įtakoti tam tikrą rinką ir jos dalyvius. Galiausiai, pateikiamos išvados ir galimi problemų sprendimo būdai, tam kad būtų užtikrintos sąžiningos skaitmeninių bankų veiklos konkurencinės sąlygos.
There is a new emerging trend of FinTechs in the modern banking. Various new market players are trying to change the world of banking. The new digital banks are challenging the biggest banks in the EU, USA and other regions of the world. As these new banks are emerging one after another, the governments need to divert their attention to this new phenomenon and try to regulate it in such way, that the digital banks could have a chance to compete against the old banking industry players. In chapter 1, I introduce the reader with a brief history of digital banking as this new type of banking is not as old as the traditional banking. I describe the reasons why such type of banks decided to challenge the banking industry and what is their main objective. One of the reasons why the banking has suffered a hit in their trust is the Financial crisis of 2008. Financial regulators decided to increase the regulation of financial institutions in order to avoid another crisis. Traditional banks don‘t have the same trust which they had before crisis. New emergings players in the banking industry are trying a different approach to the customers. They want to create a lightweight banking platform which could be used not only as a bank due to various financial technologies and innovations. Also, I briefly talk about the emergence of new banks in the United Kingdom, which is the main financial hub in Europe. I mention that new „challenger banks“ are emerging in UK banking sector which was dominated by 4 banking institutions (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group). Also I point out that every digital bank (also known as neobank) is a challenger bank but not every challenger bank is a digital bank. After that, I talk about the statistics of current banking industry in Europe. It shows that the number of physical branches of banks is constantly declining. It als o shows that traditional brick-and-mortar banks are trying to shift their business model to the model of digital banks, where everything is done via a smart device or a personal computer. Furthermore, I name a few of the current biggest digital banks, such as United Kingdom‘s „Revolut“ or Germany‘s „N26“. In the last paragraph of chapter 1, I describe how digital banks are different from traditional banks and point out main aspects which should be taken into account when comparing both of these types of banks. In chapter 2, I describe the current legal acts and various institutions which regulate the banking industry as a whole in different legal regimes. I start by naming the main legal acts and institutions in Lithuania which regulate the banks in the country. In paragraph 2, I proceed to describe various institutions which regulate the banks in the European Union. Also, I point out various legal acts enacted in the EU whose purpose is to harmonize the conditions in the EU banking market, improve supervision, competition and, at the same time, lower the requirements for emerging FinTechs to stimulate innovation while maintaining level playing field. In the last paragraph of this chapter, I describe the regulation of banking in the United States of America. I specified various government 5 bodies which supervise the banks in the country, whether they are chartered on a state or a federal level. Also, I briefly describe a few legal acts whose main purpose is to set the rules for banking, maintain fair competition among the banks and strict supervision of such institutions. In chapter 3, I analize a few problems which could potentially occur in the competition area between incumbents and digital banks in the European Union. These problems were recognized by the European Commission which are described in a 136-page study which was released in 2018. The Commission talks about problems, such as network effect, standartisation, interoperability, different national regulation in member states of the EU, data portability, access to data and other problems in other financial sectors which could be written about in a separate thesis. The European Commission also suggested possible changes in the regulation which could be made in order to maintain level playing field among the banks in the EU. In addition, I add additional insight in the competition problems by citing a few financial experts who have altertnative solutions to the problems above. To further understand the problems mentioned before, I give a few decisions of European Commission in cases, such as MCI WorldCom / Sprint or the Bronner case. The decisions in theses cases ilustrate the competition problems and it can help to understand how various certain market players can manipulate their position in the market to gain influence and lower the competition while making it difficult for emerging players to enter that market. In the conclusions part, I summarize the abovementioned problems and suggest possible solutions in order to maintain a level playing field in the banking sector, while keeping low enough entry barrier for new banking industry players, and to foster innovations which in turn stimulates competition among the market players. |
