EU competitiveness and the innovation-finance nexus

This third EU Supervisory Digital Finance Academy (EU-SDFA) e-book offers an overview of the main trends and topics relevant to the Academy. The EU-SDFA is a technical support project launched by the European Commission in October 2022, in cooperation with the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) and the Florence School of Banking and Finance (Robert Schuman Centre, EUI). The e-book consists of ten contributions from different authors grouped in two broad areas: Digital finance macro trends in 2025, and Innovation in finance for the EU’s technology ambitions, with focus on digital finance market developments and investment dynamics; regulatory and policy frameworks shaping capital markets, innovation and BigTech activity; financial literacy, consumer protection and retail participation; the integration and scaling of European capital markets for consumers and investors; and institutional, legal and governance tools (such as hubs, sandboxes, public venture capital, EuVECA and corporate law reforms) supporting innovation across the EU. The e-book is intended to enable past and future EU-SDFA participants to complement their learning experiences, while also providing valuable documents to readers interested to get an understanding of the interplay between digital finance and supervision.