The EBA’s Consumer Trends Report 2024/25 finds that de-risking remains a key issue facing EU consumers

In March, we published the Consumer Trends Report (CTR). The CTR summarises the views of national consumer protection authorities, consumer associations, industry associations and national ombudsmen, among others.

This year, the information we obtained suggests that ‘de-risking’ remains an important issue for EU consumers.

De-risking occurs if a financial institution decides not to provide a financial service to a customer. It can be a necessary risk-management tool. But de-risking can also be unwarranted, for example if an institution does not take into account an individual customers’ risk profile. The information we received for the CTR does not distinguish between warranted and unwarranted derisking.

We are now assessing possible next steps because access to basic financial products and services is an important public interest goal. In the meantime, institutions and their supervisors should have regard to our Guidelines on derisking, which we issued last year. Our factsheet on de-risking has more information.