The findings of BETTER FINANCE’s latest research report – “Pension Savings: The Real Return” – were covered in Brazil, where two consulting firms echoed our concerns regarding the disappointing performance of private pensions: high fees and commissions are putting the savings of most European citizens at risk. The absence of an objective analysis of the performance of pension funds demonstrates that regulators
Arcaf, the National Association for Public Employee Pension Savers, in France and member of BETTER FINANCE as part of FAIDER, alerted consumers to the insufficient solvency of the COREM pension fund. The French Mutual Pension Union which manages the COREM retirement savings products for 400,000 savers reached now a hole of € 2.9 billion. Almost a year after Arcaf requested the
Algarvedailynews.com echoes the conclusions drawn in BETTER FINANCE’s "Pension Savings: The Real Return" in which British pensions are shown among the worst in all of the European Union countries. The article stressed that high charges and inflation are to blame for the poor performance. The result: pensions in Britain have not grown as fast as the cost of living.
BETTER FINANCE was mentioned in an Investment & Pension Europe article focussing on the crucial importance of long-term investment. The article also takes a critical look at the European Commission’s overdue report on the responses to its consultations. It couldn’t be timelier. BETTER FINANCE “blames the destruction of the value of long-term and pension savings”
EuroFinUse was quoted by Financial News on the recent foreign exchange benchmarks fraud scandal. Foreign exchange is the biggest sized financial market, yet to date unregulated and not supervised by public authorities. To read the full article please click here
Whereas the UK was widely considered the leading force of the Capital Market Union (CMU), Theresa May’s speech on (date)… seems to announce serious turbulence ahead. Launched in 2014, the CMU intends to reduce barriers to cross-border investing and promote bond markets instead of bank lending. Theresa May declared that there will be no
It has been a rocky relationship but banks are falling back in love with their fund management arms. The idea would have been unthinkable five years ago, when many believed it was a case of when, not if, investment banks would look to sell off their divisions. After the financial crisis, banks including Barclays, Rabobank
Online investment advice: a "robo-advisor" for your savings? "The big question is whether it is better to regulate this new world of online finance, especially when it comes to advice" resumes Guillaume Prache. “Financial advisers are regulated, but since advice now also comes from non-financial players we find ourselves in a legal limbo. Do online
In an article in the Financial Times, BETTER FINANCE takes issue with the new Key Investor Document (KID). By allowing investment product providers to use forecasts of future returns to tempt retail investors, the new regulation, expected to enter into force in 2016, is deemed a “potential catastrophe”. BETTER FINANCE had made great efforts to include past returns
In its spring edition, Global Custodian published an article on how the EU is aiming at shedding a light at the calculation and measurement of investment transaction costs. EU financial regulations such as the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), the regulation on Packaged Retail Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIPs) or the European Shareholder Rights Directive