The EU-SDFA is a Technical Support Instrument flagship initiative aiming to support financial supervisory authorities coping with the risks and opportunities offered by advanced technologies in the financial sector. The EU-SDFA includes comprehensive training cycles as well as workshops for participants to gain new expertise and skills, share knowledge and engage in peer-to-peer exchanges within the financial supervisory community. This project will last until October 2025.
EUI President Renaud Dehousse, in his introductory remarks, highlighted the importance of this partnership for the Institute and in particular for the Florence School of Banking and Finance (FBF). “For us it is a great honor to be solicited and selected in order to bring forward a programme that will respond to the needs of our times (…) I am convinced that the small but strong team of the FBF will be up to the job and will deliver superbly.”
During the official launch Mario Nava, Director-General of the European Commission’s DG REFORM, described the inception of the academy. The proposal was, among many others, the most voted technical support instrument, chosen by 20 Member States and 26 institutions, to respond to the needs created by the digital transformation, which touches upon financial education, inclusion, and ethics.
Nava mentioned how the need of a truly European perspective drove the partners choice: “ESAs were the natural ground where this project could develop and grow. There is nowhere else where you can truly find an EU-wide perspective; where even the small problems of small countries become an issue for everybody (...)However, we wanted to build an academy, and what is crucial for an academy is to be where research is done and that is why it doing it at the European University Institute was a natural choice.”
Nathalie Berger, Director, Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support closed the event by stating that “Over the next three years we will involve over 750 financial sector supervisors and regulators in the activity of the Academy. No similar attempt had ever been made yet to overcome sectoral barriers and build an inclusive EU-wide community of financial experts focusing on the disruptive challenges of digitalisation.”
Click here for more information on the academy.