The European Commission published a legislative proposal for a regulation on European green bonds, which is supposed to become the high quality voluntary European Green Bond Standard. Its intention is to use the potential of the single market for achieving the EU’s climate and environmental goals in a more efficient way.
The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) created the International Sustainability Standards Board “to provide the global financial markets with high-quality disclosures on climate and other sustainability issues.” As part of its work, the ISSB published two exposure drafts on climate-related disclosures and geenral requirements for disclosure of sustainbility-related financial information.
The Corporate Sustainbility Reporting Directive mandates for the creation of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which require companies in scope to report on a full range of sustainbility information (environmental, social and governance). EFRAG is expected to deliver its final draft ESRS to the European Commission in November 2022. The standards are aimed at ensuring
The Banking Union initiative has reduced the number and magnitude of bank failures and the recourse to taxpayers’ money. However, up to now, it has been focused on prudential objectives, not on citizens as banking users’ protection. This has too often generated significant detriment to consumers of banking services.
Yesterday, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its report on high earners for 2017, available for the first time in a user-friendly format on the remuneration of “staff whose professional activities have a material impact on” the risk profile of the financial institution. The Capital Requirements Directive (CRD IV) sets out principles for sound
Today, the European Commission has reported on the latest developments in risk reduction in the EU banking sector, as well as the progress towards an even more integrated and stable EU financial system. As outlined by the Commission, the risk reduction in the EU banking sector is continuing at a sustained pace, while financial stability
The effects of the 2008 financial crisis were supported by European citizens in their double quality as depositors and taxpayers. The overhaul of the banking sector (see article here) put mechanisms for prudential oversight and crisis resolution in place. Just one piece of legislation remains to be added to the European Single Rulebook: the European
To achieve a fully-fledged Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the E.U. must complete the Banking Union (BU) based on a harmonised, risk-sharing banking services sector. The last step remaining is the establishment of a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS, see here). A complete overhaul of the field is hard to obtain since a system resilient
Largely ignored, Slovenian investors suffer the consequences of the harshest bank rescue to date… The actual implementation of bail-in rules in the case of the Slovenian banks is hitting non-insider retail investors really hard, and does not give them a fair shot at recovering their damages three years after their savings in those banks’ subordinated
In December 2013 the subordinated bondholders in five Slovenian banks (NLB, NKBM, Abanka, Probanka and Factor Banka) were bailed-in to refinance these struggling institutions. Subordinated bonds in a sixth bank (Banka Celje) were wiped out in December 2014. In each case the bail-in consisted of a complete wipe-out of all subordinated bonds, including those sold
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
With the view to domesticate "shadow banking" the Financial Stability Board propsed at yesterday’s global regulators meeting higher levels of government intervention for non-bank lending markets. High quality global journalism requires investment. The wide-ranging package includes "new rules for everything from asset securitisation to short-term lending, as well as guidelines for regulators around the world
The 2° Investing Initiative (2DII) is an independent, non-profit think tank working to align financial markets and regulations with the Paris Agreement goals. 2DII coordinates some of the world’s largest research projects on sustainable finance. 2DII is an associate member of BETTER FINANCE.
[A provisional version of the publication was available in January 2024. The document has been updated to the final March 2024 version] The report by CFA Institute and BETTER FINANCE critically reviews the EU’s listing rules, targeting reforms to improve public market accessibility for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It aims to foster debate amidst
Factors influencing the number of new listings/IPOs in Sweden Paper presented to the Policy Committee of ecoDa, January 2022 According to the EU Commission’s report “Primary and secondary equity markets in the EU” Sweden has had a unique development of the number of new listings/IPOs between 2010 and 2018 compared to all other member
DWS, a German asset manager, has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for $19 million. This settlement is over greenwashing allegations and is the SEC’s highest penalty related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria against an investment adviser. An additional $6 million penalty was imposed for anti-money laundering violations, totaling $25
Panel 1 | Capital market development in CEE - potential and constraints BETTER FINANCE Materials CMU Assessment Report 2019-2022 Partner Materials Panel 2 | Empowering individual investors: improving outcomes and ensuring best execution BETTER FINANCE Materials Transparency and Best Execution for Retail Traders and Investors - Policy Position Retail Investment Strategy shows potential, but fails
| Original article from the FT, by Huw van Steenis, co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s finance council. | The Russian invasion of Ukraine is yet another reason why “investors and policymakers will need to destigmatise khaki finance — encouraging the greening of “grey” industries, rather than just backing the development of the greenest-of-green technologies”.
Individual, non-professional investors have an increased appetite for investing in capital markets following the global health pandemic. Evidence in several jurisdictions shows that many new, young, and tech-savvy savers started to invest without professional assistance through what is called execution-only services under EU law . The European Supervisory Authorities (ESMA, EIOPA, EBA) have a legal
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
| 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