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The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has pitched into debate over US investor rights, backing tougher rules on shareholder advice and “greater transparency” in resolutions and annual meetings. According to Barbara Novick, BlackRock’s vice-chairman, and Ray Cameron, head of investment stewardship for the Americas, such improvements are possible through the proxy process, including around voting

Whereas Shareholder rights have been reinforced in Europe (Shareholders Rights Directive), in the US, after several years of progress, it looks like they may be headed in the wrong direction.  Despite its title, the “Financial Choice Act” – the bill passed by the House of Representatives two weeks ago – is seen as a gift

EU leaders met in Brussels yesterday and continued their discussion today on the British reform proposals, the migration crisis but also on their economic views and Bank Breakups. Brussels is worried about the prospect of an actual Brexit but relaxed about the outcome of the summit. British Bankers were at pains to dispel the Franco-German

Regulators are planning to hit nine of the biggest insurance companies with new safety rules which are tougher than the industry expected. The proposals are estimated to increase the capital requirements for unexpected losses by 10 percent on average. Insurers have attacked the plans of the G20’s Financial Stability Board, which oversees the new regime

The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, urges financial institutions to address the dangers of climate change. Particularly he urges insurance companies to help counteract the financial shocks which climate change might trigger. He holds that investors should stress-test the effects of environmental disasters and prepare their portfolios to minimize their contribution to man-made climate

Daniele Nouy, the Eurozone’s new chief banking regulator, warned that weak banks should be allowed to fail following upcoming ECB’s stress tests. In her first interview since being appointed chief of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, Ms. Nouy signaled that, as part of the EU’s banking system stabilization, it is necessary “to accept that some banks

“Banks are too focused on executive pay and shareholder dividends and need to focus more on the rights of employees, their creditors and wider society”. Andy Haldane’s speech, the University of Edinburgh’s Corporate Finance Conference Known for his radical views, the Bank of England’s chief economist believes banks and companies can play an important role

Last Friday (19 June), European Union finance ministers reached an agreement on a draft law aimed at tackling the problem of so-called too-big-to-fail banks, eventually forcing banks to curb proprietary trading and giving national regulators the power to split off risky trading activities from safer lending operations. The deal would apply to banks whose trading

Guillaume Prache, Managing Director at Better Fiannce, was quoted in the Financial Time on the postponement of the vote on the regulations aimed at setting tougher standards for benchmarks such as Euribor and the improvement of investor protection. The vote, expected last week, was postponed following last-minute legal objections from the Social Democrat and Green political parties. Being one

France and Italy want to set a limit on the reserves euro zone banks should be ready to wipe out if they need to be rescued, a joint document said, fuelling controversy over EU bail-in rules meant to reduce taxpayer costs. The European Commission is preparing a proposal to adapt MREL requirements to internationally-agreed standards,

In a recent Financial Times article, Guillaume Prache, Senior advisor at BETTER FINANCE, criticizes the use of Article 8 funds in sustainable investing. He argues that increasing the minimum sustainable investment percentage in these funds is ineffective and prone to greenwashing. These funds often oversimplify sustainability as mere ‘green activities’ and predominantly use an exclusion

The Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) started applying in March 2021 and requires financial market participants and financial advisers to disclose at entity and product levels how they integrate sustainability risks and principal adverse impacts in their processes at both entity and product levels. It also introduces additional product disclosures for sustainable financial products making

BETTER FINANCE, alongside other NGOs, urges members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee to ensure that the new ESG Regulation improves the reliability, comparability and transparency of ESG Ratings in the EU and in particular to: 1. mandate ESG ratings to follow a double materiality approach, therefore taking into consideration companies’ exposure to ESG

BETTER FINANCE supports the newly suggested mandatory social indicators under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which aim to measure principal adverse impacts (PAI).

BETTER FINANCE supports the newly suggested mandatory social indicators under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which aim to measure principal adverse impacts (PAI). It is crucial for these indicators to align with the current Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the associated European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) to ensure consistency. The implementation of these

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is a European regulation introduced to improve transparency in the market for sustainable investment products, to prevent greenwashing and to increase transparency around sustainability claims made by financial market participants. The SFDR introduces disclosure requirements for financial institutions at organisation, service and product level. In addition to complementing the

CEPS together with Milieu and Europe Economics have been commissioned by the European Commission (Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union) to conduct a study on the Audit Directive and Regulation. Please find BETTER FINANCE’s response to the survey for the CEPS Study below.

The EU offers pre-contractual information to non-professional investors before purchasing its investment products. Since 2018, the same Key Information Document (KID) has been used for these Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Products (PRIIPs). The European Commission asked the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) to survey the different stakeholders, beneficiaries, and issuers of the PRIIPs KID. The objective of this survey is to know

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.

EuroFinUse was quoted in the Accountancy Age with regards to the EU Audit regulation. It’s a case of going back to basics. Should the ultimate oversight body for auditing in the EU be the European Group of Auditors’ Oversight Bodies (EGAOB), as set up under the 8th Company Law directive, which has roots going back

EuroFinUse was quoted in the Accountancy Age with regards to the EU Audit regulation. It’s a case of going back to basics. Should the ultimate oversight body for auditing in the EU be the European Group of Auditors’ Oversight Bodies (EGAOB), as set up under the 8th Company Law directive, which has roots going back

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

In June 2020, the Wirecard scandal unraveled, generating unprecedented retail investor detriment worth about €20 billion. BETTER FINANCE reacted, labelling it an “outrageous case of corporate governance, external auditing and supervisory failures”[1] and calling for an urgent reform of EU Audit Rules. The responsibility and liability of the external auditor is at stake. More than

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

BETTER FINANCE and its member organisations representing individual, minority shareholders see the framework for sound functioning and trustworthy listed issuers as comprising three key dimensions: first, sustainable corporate governance (corporate reporting); second, robust statutory audit market; and sound supervision, both of listed issuers and of auditing firms. In terms of corporate governance, we believe that

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’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

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

The European Central Bank (ECB)’s new monetary policy is a positive step, but it needs more ambition to tackle its climate problem, warns a group of European lawmakers, environmental activists and economists.   Scientists warn us again and again: climate change is accelerating. Preliminary findings from the IPCC raise the alarm on the extremely worrying

Despite a 10-year bull market both for European equities and bonds, the outlook for European pension savers remains bleak. Whereas returns have improved in recent years, the Better Finance study, Pension savings: the real return, once again shows that most long-term pension savings products did not, on average, return anything close to those of capital markets.

Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE spoke this morning at the Public Hearing on Sustainable Finance. He reminded that EU savers and individual investors are mostly long-term oriented (much more than institutional investors) and represent the main source of the long-term funding of the EU economy. Despite the fact that BETTER FINANCE was asked

EU citizens as savers are by nature mostly long-term driven since 67% of their total assets are deployed in long-term investments1 (versus only 37% for pension funds – despite their purely long-term horizon – and 11% for insurers) and their main saving goals are long-term: retirement, housing, children’s studies, transmission of wealth, etc. For these

BETTER FINANCE welcomes the Interim Report of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance of the European Union, which highlights the need to “incorporate long-term and sustainable value creation”. BETTER FINANCE underlines the need to establish common definitions and standards at least at the EU level. Long-term and pension savers must be recognised as major

“Volkswagen and its former chief executive Martin Winterkorn must face a US lawsuit brought by American investors who allege the company improperly inflated its share price by cheating on emissions tests, a judge in California has ruled. […] The investors allege that VW committed securities fraud both through the cheating and by failing to tell

In its final advice to the European Commission (EC) on the further development of a single European Union market for personal pension products (PPPs), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) stressed that attempts to harmonise existing Directives and rules across the different sectors and EU Member States would be counter-productive and unnecessarily complicate

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities recently issued its proposal for regulatory technical standards (RTS) on Key Information Documents (KIDs) for Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs). BETTER FINANCE already expressed its major concern with the destruction of a key improvement of the UCITS funds regulation in the past: the mandatory, standardised

On 11 February 2016 BETTER FINANCE sent an open letter to the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA) and to the Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union to request that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) follow up on its release of the results