To clarify, this is presented as a good thing.
Of course, my bank doesn't have a "monopoly" on my account information: that information is not a commodity. More so, it is definitely not something that I would ever want to have change hands and be traded around. I entrust my money to the bank, very grudgingly, because it's a convenience, but I definitely, very very definitely, do not want it to share any information about the services it provides to me with third parties.
I really hope the article is misrepresenting the new directive, or that at the very least it will be a unique legistlative exception that somehow manages to provide adequate safeguards to my privacy, otherwise... OK, I don't know what, otherwise. This just sounds insanely stupid. In terms of protecting EU citizens' privacy it's a giant leap backwards.