In the current low interest environment, life insurance remains the better option for French long–term or pension savers (if invested in euros), with returns (on average around 2,5% gross in 2014) superior to other products. Still, to determine the real return, costs, taxes and inflation need to be taken into account. According to the study
Carl Rosén, chief executive of the Swedish Shareholders’ Association (SSA) and vice-president of BETTER FINANCE, featured in last Sunday’s Financial Times “Face to Face” section, dedicated to people in the fund management industry. A former investment banker, Carl Rosén and the Swedish organisation caught the financial industry and media’s attention after publicly criticising some of
According to The Guardian, a group of UK Labour MPs believes pension savers should be allowed to question retirement fund managers and to elect trustees to occupational schemes. The demand follows a string of critical reports on the pension fund industry including BETTER FINANCE’s "Pension Savings: The Real Return" in which it is concluded that in Britain, pension
Following a debate on the European Commission’s proposal to amend the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD) held on the 12th of May in Brussels, Funds Europe now draws attention to BETTER FINANCE’s concerns regarding the fees that individual investors often have to pay in order to exercise their voting rights. BETTER FINANCE believes that European shareholders should be able to
Today’s Financial Times story is based on the recent EuroFinUse’s Response to the Public Consultation on the review of the European System of Financial Supervision from the European Commission. The FT echoes EuroFinUse’s views on the need for a more balanced representation of retail users in the European consultative “Stakeholder Groups”, and the need for
9 October 2017 – BETTER FINANCE, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users, launched the fifth edition of its annual Pension Savings Report. Started in 2013, the annual research report undertakes an analysis of European pension investment funds and State pensions schemes, in order to provide the European citizen with the ‘real figures’
Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, has been recently quoted in the FT discussing the impact and importance of consumer investment regulation, including the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II: “Most funds covered are actually retail long-only ones – for example, in France, there are 3,500 domiciled
The World Federation of Investors (WFI), the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders of Listed Companies (AEMEC, one of BETTER FINANCE’s members) and BETTER FINANCE have stated that the swap transaction that took place between CaixaBank and its controlling shareholder, Criteria, lacks transparency and adequate information to the detriment of minority shareholders of CaixaBank. Indeed small
Dismally low returns on EU pension fund investments over 15 years? The allegation comes in a study by BETTER FINANCE, the European Federation of Investors & Financial Services Users. The report, Pensions Savings: The Real Return, points to excessive fees, points to other charges, and badly framed taxation rules, as the culprits. “Pension savings did
Morningstar, the investment research provider, put the finger on the weak spot. Its latest findings on the UK fund market show that the number of "closet tracker" funds that charge high fees for active management – while in reality they simply follow an index – has more than doubled in the UK in the last 12 months. Quoted in last Sunday’s edition