The European Commission has set out, in the form of a Green Paper, its vision for future EU policy on retail financial services, which are financial products such as bank accounts, loans, mortgages, investments and insurance provided to individual consumers. The Green Paper aims to strengthen and deepen the Commission's understanding of the problems faced by consumers and industry in this area, to set out the Commission's overarching objectives and to highlight areas where more work may be needed. It is an important contribution to the Commission's current review of the Single Market to ensure that its policies are fit for the 21st century (see IP/07/214). The Commission welcomes comments on the Green Paper by 16 July 2007.