Prosecutors in Germany have brought criminal charges against Volkswagen executives over Dieselgate. They have been charged with stock market manipulation. More here.
Time for a negotiated settlement for European investors: VW has been dragging its feet over European claims The company has paid out € 30 billion in the US This approach is unfair and unjust to European investors Delaying tactics have not worked; legal pressure is mounting The two leading investor protection associations call for a
The US-American authorities Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) have investigated cars from Volkswagen AG and found that, among others, certain US emission standards have been violated. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in engines of certain Volkswagen cars have been found to exceed EPA standards by a factor of up to
In 2016, BETTER FINANCE joined the The Stichting Volkswagen Investors’ Claim in order to help investors obtain redress for “Dieselgate” scandal (information can be found here) Now, time has come for high-ranking Volkswagen executives to testify in court in a case concerning the stock market fray between Volkswagen’s biggest shareholders. A German court will begin hearing
In a letter addressed to the German Federal Minister of Economy and Energy, the Foundation expresses its disappointment regarding the absence of an answer to the letter sent to the Federal Minister in April 2017. As a reminder, the Stichting Volkswagen Investors Claim represents German and international investors (shareholders and bondholders of VW), who in
As Chairman of the Management Board of the public interest Foundation Stichting Volkswagen Investors Claim I have sent an open letter to Ms. Brigitte Zypries, Minister for Economics and Energy. Stichting Volkswagen Investors Claim strives for a rapid solution that is at the same time fair to the victims, and does not substantially prejudice the
U.S. developments Over the last months, it has been reported that Volkswagen reached a 15 billion dollar settlement with the authorities, the consumers and the car dealers in the United States. Contrary to these developments, Volkswagen has raised a motion to dismiss the ADR investor case. The judge will hear this motion during a trial
DSW, Germany’s oldest and largest association of private investors and member of BETTER FINANCE, partnered up with the Netherlands-based foundation STICHTING VOLKSWAGEN INVESTORS CLAIM in order to represent aggrieved VW investors in the DieselGate case. The Foundation seeks to settle with Volkswagen out of court, with a potential agreement in favour of VW investors to
BETTER FINANCE, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users, has committed to support the Stichting (Foundation) Volkswagen Investors Claim in pursuing recovery for investors who suffered investment losses resulting from the Volkswagen (VW) emissions scandal. To this day, the Dutch collective redress system remains the only system that can effectively represent abused European
The German investor association DSW, a member organisation of BETTER FINANCE, is examining the possibility of legal proceedings in Germany on the grounds that VW violated its duty to immediately disclose all information regarding the manipulation of emissions and the ensuing fallout. Since the issue is clearly not limited to Germany, DSW is also examining
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.
Transition investing refers to capital needed to improve economic activities, that are not environmentally friendly at present. Such capital supports the development of innovation and infrastructure, enabling current activities to eventually achieve climate neutrality. The European Commission’s release of the transition finance ‘Recommendation’[1] emphasised the importance of such investments for Europe’s pursuit of environmentally conscious
The Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing opened applications for its 2022-2023 fellowship program: Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing J. Robert Beyster Fellowship, Louis O. Kelso Fellowship & Other Fellowships The Rutgers Institute for the Study of
Solvency II equity-to-own funds calibrations to be reduced to 22% in some cases to support long-term investments. BETTER FINANCE’s (and others’) unabated efforts to convince the EU Authorities to recalibrate the capital requirements for equity have started to bear fruit. On 9 November 2018, with the input of BETTER FINANCE and other stakeholders, the Commission
BETTER FINANCE’s (and others’) unabated efforts to convince the EU Authorities to recalibrate the capital requirements for equity have started to bear fruit. On 9 November 2018, with the input of BETTER FINANCE and other stakeholders, the Commission tabled targeted amendments to the Solvency II delegated regulation, in particular to the equity calibration.
VW’s situation is going from bad to worst. Following the outbreak of the emissions cheating scandal in September 2015, the German carmaker is now declared personae non-grata in Luxembourg pension fund. The Grand Duchy’s Compensation Fund (set up to hold Luxembourg’s excess pension revenues) has added VW to its exclusion list due to the company’s
19 October 2017 – BETTER FINANCE elected Jella Benner-Heinacher, the Deputy Chief Executive of Germany’s oldest and largest association for private investors DSW, as its new President. This story was followed-up by a cover in the German financial publication, Börsen Zeitung, in the article ‘Benner-Heinacher elected as President of BETTER FINANCE’ (original Benner-Heinacher zur Präsidentin
From Mr Guillaume Prache Sir, The misguided condemnation of shareholder value by Mr Martin Wolf («Opportunist shareholders must embrace commitment», August 26) is based on a profound misunderstanding of what creating shareholder value is about. The financial crisis has understandably motivated decision makers and stakeholders to find out what caused it. Amongst others, the concept of
Please find here an Equiduct LFA analysis on the cost of opportunity of the European equity trades execution based on full depth order book data prices across seven European venues: Xetra, Euronext, Chi-X, Turquoise, BATS, Borsa Italiana and Equiduct HybridBook.
After the 2023 AGM season and looking ahead to the 2024 season, BETTER FINANCE and its member organisations voice concerns about the erosion of shareholder rights. Inadequate rules for Virtual Annual General Meetings (AGMs) in some Member States highlight the need for broader engagement and representation frameworks for investors to truly benefit from digitalisation. The