As part of the European Responsible Investment Network (ERIN), BETTER FINANCE has joined forces with ShareAction and other NGOs to launch an EU Elections Manifesto, urging EU policymakers to take bold action on sustainable finance. Within this manifesto, we have outlined our key recommendations for the upcoming European Commission: Accelerate investments in Europe’s transition to
‘The Value of Financial Advice’ is an upcoming conference organized by Nordic Finance and the Good Society in Frederiksberg, Denmark. A number of esteemed keynote speakers from academia and the financial services sector will share their insights on the role of financial advice for financial decision-making. Register here.
BETTER FINANCE was quoted in a recent Reuters article on the ongoing discussion surrounding the European Union’s plans to enhance consumer protections in the financial services sector through its retail investment package. Notably, the EU aims to introduce ‘value for money’ safeguards as well as a ban on “inducements” for non-advised sales of investment products,
Transparency Task Force will hold a webinar about financial reporting, covering themes such as “Get real about financial reporting” and “The Financialisaton of Financial Reporting”. Stakeholders and experts will talk about “smoke and mirrors” and “conjuring tricks” and “insurance companies trading insolvent” and “Solvency 2 reforms”, amongst others. Addressing the inadequacies of financial reporting, the
On Wednesday, 7 June 2023, the European Commission will be hosting in Brussels the annual Joint Conference on European Financial Integration, organised with the European Central Bank (ECB). Guillaume Prache, BETTER FINANCE’s Managing Director, will give a speech on The consumer perspective on Banking Union and Capital Market Union. More information and registration
Faced with the risk of “regulatory capture”, six civil society co-signatories representing “small” savers and “minority” investors call on the President of the French Republic to reconsider the governance of the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) The representatives of “l’Association Éthique et Investissement”, FAIR, Deontofi, RéseauCEP, “l’Association pour le Patrimoine et l’Actionnariat Individuel” and the “Fédération
This podcast aims to broaden listeners’ knowledge on financial inclusion in simple terms.
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
The objective of this project is to understand the perceived experience of market participants with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), including investment professionals as well as the recipients of financial services and products (i.e., retail investors). The study presents professional and retail investors’ views on the main issues that pertain to SPAC vehicles: transparency and
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
Brussels, 20 July 2020 – The new composition of the European Supervisory Authorities’ (ESAs) “Stakeholder Groups” is a step backwards with regard to a balanced representation between industry and consumers in EU financial rulemaking. This is the result of the recent ESAs reform, which reduced the quotas for consumers and academics in favour of financial
BETTER FINANCE welcomes the latest amendments adopted by the ECON Committee to the reform of the European System of Financial Supervision (including the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (EIOPA), the European Markets and Securities Authority (ESMA) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). This reform of the European Financial
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) initiated a peer review and published a report that found that six national competent authorities (NCAs) need to enhance their supervision of Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS) operating with Efficient Portfolio Management Techniques (EPM). BETTER FINANCE thanks ESMA and welcomes the action taken on consumer protection: the
20 September 2017 – The European Commission (EC) announced its proposal to improve the supervision of European financial services as well as its revision of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) today. BETTER FINANCE welcomes the proposal to have permanent members on the Boards of Supervisors of the ESAS as an improvement to their governance. However,
Today, Alin Iacob, Chairman of the Association of Romanian Financial Services Users, vice chair of the EBA Banking Stakeholder Group and Board Member of BETTER FINANCE, participated in a Panel Discussion on Retail Conduct Supervision at the Joint ESAs Consumer Protection Day 2017. He brought the perspective from Central and Eastern Europe on this important
With up to 20 expert members taking part in the four stakeholder groups of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), including 3 vice-chairs, BETTER FINANCE is the user-side NGO that is most actively involved with the work of the ESAs. It is therefore particularly well placed to contribute in the work of this crucial and welcome
BETTER FINANCE welcomes the proposal for the Retail Investment Strategy (RIS) put forward by the European Commission (EC) on 24 May 2023. We fully share the goals that the EC pursues with this initiative ‘rules that are coherent across legal instruments’; ‘adequate protection’‘bias-free advice and fair treatment’; ‘open markets with a variety of competitive and
The draft Regulation on ESG ratings proposed by the European Commission in June 2023 aims to establish a framework and tackle structural issues by combating possible conflicts of interests, imposing better transparency in the rating processes, and introducing an authorisation and supervision system for ESG rating providers (for both EU and non-EU entities). Although commendable,
BETTER FINANCE welcomes the objectives of the Listing Act review put forward by the European commission to make EU Capital Markets more attractive for companies, particularly for SMEs.[1] Investor associations have long emphasised that to revitalise the Capital Markets Union, the EU’s primary and secondary markets need a boost, that is, greater participation from EU
EU Law rightly requires information provided to individual investors to be clear, i.e., “presented in a way that is likely to be understood by, the average member of the group to whom it is directed, or by whom it is likely to be received”, and as such, retail investors expect definitions and classifications of funds
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“BETTER FINANCE together with ShareAction, the German Association of the Insured BdV, Urgewald and WWF European Policy Office react to the Solvency II review on related sustainability requirements. Solvency II, the legislative framework for EU insurers, is currently under review. Solvency II, introduced in 2016, laid the foundations for a harmonised, sound, and robust prudential
The European Federation of investors and Financial Services Users fully supports the clear stated objectives of the European Union’s very welcome “Retail Investor Strategy”. ENSURE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD IN SECTORAL LEGISLATION The European Commission’s stated goal for the EU Strategy for Retail Investors (RIS) is to: ”ensure that (…) rules are coherent across legal
A loan (credit) is “non-performing” when it’s either over 90 days overdue or unlikely to be reimbursed by the client (business or consumer). In this case, credit institutions (e.g., banks) can resort to one of the three following recourses: either “work it out” with the customer, e.g., grant a moratorium (postponement), restructure the repayment, discount
Regulations on Markets in Crypto Assets and the EU Pilot Regime for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based market infrastructures BETTER FINANCE welcomes the initiatives and efforts of EU public authorities to accommodate emerging technologies in financial services whilst maintaining a safe and stable environment for consumers and financial services users to benefit from our single
With the termination of the intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in 2020 – which received significant criticism for overlapping with the EU single market rules – the EC launched an initiative to improve the investor protection and facilitation framework at EU level. This initiative was reiterated in the new Capital Markets Union (CMU) Action Plan