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Effective date: January 10, 2024 Update privacy preferences BETTER FINANCE ("us", "we", or "our") operates the https://betterfinance.eu website (the "Service"). This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data. We use your data to

As previously covered by BETTER FINANCE, shareholder activism is experiencing a new spring. As opposed to the aggressive nature of their forefathers, today`s activists put faith in cooperation and dialogue rather than conflict and public battles. While activist investors have traditionally been larger Wall Street heavyweights, it seems that this new emerging era of activism

The EC announced their nomination of Mr Boštjan Jazbec as a member to the Single Resolution Board (SRB) in a press release on Wednesday 14th of February. Though Mr Jazbec has proven experience with monetary policy issues, for instance as the Governor of the Bank of Slovenia, critics cite his involvement in the Slovenian “institutional

As discussed in January, the new legislative package tackling Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID II/ MiFIR and the delegated acts) changed the landscape with view on the Capital Markets Union. While few CMU participants are fully in line with the new regulatory prerequisites, others struggle to comply and manage the additional costs ‘running to the

The negotiations on the future treaty between the EU and UK met with a proposal from the City of London, Europe’s financial sector capital, to ‘allow cross-border trade in financial services’. The negotiation team lead by Michel Barnier on the EU-side refused this proposal, which adds further turmoil to the City as many corporations have

The newly applicable provisions of MiFID II on reporting duties also concern financial transactions of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). Considering that the majority of initial ETF trading (primary dealing or creation) takes place directly between market makers (such as credit institutions – buyers) and authorised participants (distributors), the upstream market for ETFs is made through over-the-counter

On the day it becomes directly applicable, the long-awaited revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) gives birth to a new and healthier environment for financial services and instruments across the Single Market. Although only 11 out of 28 Member States have implemented the Directive so far, the past two years have been a

The lack of collective redress in Europe remains an issue for the European finance industry, especially from the perspective of investors and shareholders (see BETTER FINANCE paper here). Given that procedural law falls under the exclusive competence of Member States (still), there is no harmonising legislation fostering cross-border class-action lawsuits in Europe. As became apparent

Characterised by low interest rates for credit and low yields for debt instruments, the past year as well as 2016 were not very fruitful for institutional investors (especially insurers and credit institutions), reason for which professionals who offer financial products have been searching for financial assets with higher returns (see article here). A recent study

The European Commission has issued the Delegated Act on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to enhance transparency in sustainability reporting by companies. However, it faces criticism for weakening key aspects of the initial proposal by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and neglecting vital concerns. Critics

The practice of greenwashing, or marketing a product as environmentally friendly, when in fact basic environmental standards have not been met, can take many forms including misleading labels and unsubstantiated/vague claims, meaningless catchwords, etc. with the aim of making a product or company seem greener and more socially responsible than it really is, amounting to

According to the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) recent study on the EU Eco-label awarded to green retail financial products and services, only 16 funds out of a sample of 3000 meet the proposed minimum portfolio greenness threshold of 50% and exclusion requirements. In view of these findings, the supervisor has suggested loosening requirements

Klimawandel anpacken! | Investieren und engagieren, um #greenwashing zu vermeiden

In this video you can learn about greenwashing and how to prevent engaging in such practices. It also provides useful information on measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of investments.

The Danish financial regulator, the FSA, and its Norwegian counterpart Finanstilsynet, stated that the increasing supply of investment products marketed as sustainable can increase the risk of greenwashing, meaning products could be marketed as green without living up to the name. The FSA said that this calls for the tightening of supervisory efforts, in order

Following repeated requests by BETTER FINANCE, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched an investigation in 2015 into the practice of Closet Indexing and found that investor detriment was potentially very significant, with up to 15 % of the UCITs funds it selected potentially falsely active. However, since ESMA never disclosed the funds that

According to a new research by Evercore Pan-Asset, investment managers of UK pensions funds are “wasting” more than 6 billion pounds a year by investing in actively managed equity, bond and property funds rather than cheap and better performing passive funds. The greater difference between the average gulf passive and active and the fees alone

A few weeks ago Steve Johnson in an article in the Financial Times pointed out that billions of dollars are being wasted on investment advice. According to research carried out by the Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, pension funds and other large investors are wasting billions of dollars a year on worthless advice from investment

EuroFinUse was present at the ALFI Global Distribution Conference on 12 & 13 September 2013 in Luxembourg. Guillaume Prache, EuroFinUse’s Managing Director, attended the Conference as a panelist and took part in the panel “Regaining the trust of investors: implications for the asset management industry”.   Read the Conference highlights here and see the Conference

For a long time considered a model of German success story, the online payment company Wirecard collapsed in 2020 in a dramatic and scandalous bankruptcy, tarnishing the reputation of the political class and financial control authorities. This Thursday, the trial of the former president of Wirecard and two other managers opens in Munich. An alleged

Dutch foundation to enable assertion of claims against EY Deutschland and EY Global – at no cost and risk-free. Amsterdam | Düsseldorf | Frankfurt, 06 April 2022 – Wirecard AG’s bankruptcy is likely one of the biggest economic scandals in German history. Within no time it became clear that the high-tech hopes for online payments

The EU Commission has announced to work on an audit reform in the aftermath of the Wirecard scandal. ” Wirecard has clearly illustrated what can happen if the three lines of defense – Internal Control System, good corporate governance incl. a strong Supervisory Board and the external audit fail to perform. This is a major issue

BETTER FINANCE thanks the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for its “peer review” report on the Wirecard scandal. It is quite revealing of the many failures and conflicts of interests that can plague even the most resourced national financial supervisors. It is unfortunate however that ESMA did not look into the handling by the

Following the fallout from the Wirecard AG scandal BETTER FINANCE’s German member organisation, DSW, the leading shareholder association in Germany, launched an information campaign for duped investors, including a series of Q&As and a press release to inform abused investors about the next steps. Wirecard investors are entitled to register their claims in the insolvency

| UPDATE 12 October 2020: Wirecard investors can now register their claims to participate in insolvency proceedings | After publishing a series of Q&As for duped individual investors and pension savers in light of the outrageous Wirecard AG scandal, BETTER FINANCE’s German member organisation, DSW, the leading shareholder association in Germany, issued a press release today

BETTER FINANCE’s German member organisation, Deutsche Schutzverein für Wertpapiersitz (DSW), published a series of Q&As for duped individual investors and pension savers in light of the outrageous Wirecard AG scandal and the accompanying, corporate governance, external auditing and supervisory failures. The Q&A document is available in English on the BETTER FINANCE website below. On 1

Brussels, 31 July 2020 – On 24 July 2020, the European Commission (EC) announced the “Capital Markets Recovery Package”, as part of the its overall coronavirus recovery strategy, aimed at making it easier for capital markets to support European businesses in their recovery from the fallout from the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. To this end the

Düsseldorf, 01 July 2020 – DSW, the leading shareholder association in Germany, repeatedly criticised Wirecard in the last years for its lack of transparency and weak Corporate Goverance structures. „The ad-hoc disclosure of 18 of June 2020, in which the company stated that there was no proof for the escrow accounts about 1.9 billion €

It is with surprise that BETTER FINANCE and its member organisations representing financial services users read the headline on 18 June 2020 that Wirecard AG (“WD”), one of Europe’s FinTech success stories, may have mis-reported €1.9 billion in its balance sheets, filling for insolvency a few days later.