EU regulators have taken special control of the largest technology providers.
The European Union is increasingly emphatic about "digital sovereignty" and the need to reduce dependence on American tech giants. Against this backdrop, European Commissioner for Financial Services Maria Luís Albuquerque stated that it is essential for Europe to maintain control over the key technologies that underpin the region's economies. She made this statement on Tuesday, February 3, at a conference in Brussels dedicated to fintech regulation.
The European Commission wasn't the only one to raise this issue. A representative of the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, emphasized at the same event that European institutions should rely less on technology providers outside the region. According to Stephen Mayor, the bank's head of supervision, financial institutions in Europe are becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks due to their heavy reliance on a small number of cloud service providers. He also noted that some players are already trying to expand their supplier base and diversify their infrastructure.
Mayor also linked the increased risks to the deterioration of "long-standing global relationships" and the overall cyber environment, without naming specific countries. The European Central Bank had previously reinforced this picture: back in November, it noted that geopolitical tensions and technological disruptions were among the threats facing the European banking sector.
At the same time, EU regulators are already formalizing their approach to dependence on external infrastructure. According to Reuters, the list of "critical external suppliers" for the bloc's financial sector includes 19 tech companies, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft. This underscores the significant role cloud computing plays in European finance, and why the debate over control of key technologies is becoming a practical matter for the EU rather than a political slogan.
The European Union is increasingly emphatic about "digital sovereignty" and the need to reduce dependence on American tech giants. Against this backdrop, European Commissioner for Financial Services Maria Luís Albuquerque stated that it is essential for Europe to maintain control over the key technologies that underpin the region's economies. She made this statement on Tuesday, February 3, at a conference in Brussels dedicated to fintech regulation.
The European Commission wasn't the only one to raise this issue. A representative of the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, emphasized at the same event that European institutions should rely less on technology providers outside the region. According to Stephen Mayor, the bank's head of supervision, financial institutions in Europe are becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks due to their heavy reliance on a small number of cloud service providers. He also noted that some players are already trying to expand their supplier base and diversify their infrastructure.
Mayor also linked the increased risks to the deterioration of "long-standing global relationships" and the overall cyber environment, without naming specific countries. The European Central Bank had previously reinforced this picture: back in November, it noted that geopolitical tensions and technological disruptions were among the threats facing the European banking sector.
At the same time, EU regulators are already formalizing their approach to dependence on external infrastructure. According to Reuters, the list of "critical external suppliers" for the bloc's financial sector includes 19 tech companies, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft. This underscores the significant role cloud computing plays in European finance, and why the debate over control of key technologies is becoming a practical matter for the EU rather than a political slogan.
