The EBA report on the situation of consumers of banking services in the European Union

06/05/2025

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is the EU agency that regulates and supervises the European banking sector and, as such, has a specific mandate to protect consumers in the banking sector. To this end, the EBA designs Risk Indicators with the aim of identifying in which situations the conduct of financial institutions harms their clients. In addition, it lays down rules and guidelines that ensure fair and transparent practices in the sale of financial products and protect consumers against abusive practices.

On March 26, the EBA published its report on trends and problems in the marketing of retail banking products and services during the years 2022 and 2023 (870 KB). This report identifies three main problems affecting European consumers: payment fraud, indebtedness and unjustified financial exclusion.

Fraud Payment Services

It remains one of the problems to be monitored in the EU and more so with the universalisation of digital payment services. The risks come from new types of fraud and social engineering techniques, that is, from the techniques used that manipulate the consumer and lead him to make a payment or to provide his keys to a cybercriminal.

Over-indebtedness

The study has detected an increase in the volume of consumer credit, especially in fast and accessible credit products, such as "buy now, pay later" (BNPL). It also warns that inadequate creditworthiness assessment practices and lack of transparency in the provision of pre-contractual information lead to consumer over-indebtedness.

Unjustified banking exclusion

Some consumers find it difficult to open a bank account, especially vulnerable groups such as migrants and refugees. The report denounces the impact on these consumers when entities, without providing adequate information, refuse to sign up for an account or suspend or close it.

The EBA regularly reviews all these indicators and takes action to improve consumer protection in the EU.

• In the first case, the EBA has proposed additional security measures to mitigate fraud and new initiatives to raise public awareness and increase their financial education.
• As regards indebtedness, the Authority monitors the impact of economic factors on residential mortgages and credit products and will propose actions accordingly if consumers’ payment conditions worsen. 
• And with regard to unjustified banking exclusion, it will monitor financial institutions' compliance with the rules stemming from the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Guidelines without undermining access to financial services for all EU consumers.

“Disclaimer: Please note that this is a translation of the original in Spanish that has been obtained using eTranslation (the machine translation tool provided by the European Commission), with the intention of giving you a basic idea of the content in English until a human translation becomes available. The Banco de España accepts no liability whatsoever in connection with this translation.”