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
On October 4th, BETTER FINANCE’s newest report on the performance of pension funds in eight EU countries was covered in an article in The Economist. Focusing on the conclusions of the report, the article stresses European savers have suffered terrible returns from pension funds while European authorities “do not know the actual performance of the services they are
Guillaume Prache, Managing Director at BETTER FINANCE, was quoted in Investment Europe following his contribution to EFAMA’s report “Building Blocks for Industry Driven Investor Education Initiatives”. He stressed that "most consumers tend to be educated about finance at the point of sale, rather than at school". At the same time, Prache pointed out that "four decades ago, households
EuroFinUse was quoted by the Financial News on the Regulation for Key Information Documents (KID) for investment products. Juan Manuel Viver, EuroFinUse’s Policy Officer, spoke on the fragmentation of MEPs’ views on the scope for the KID Regulation. Read the full article here
In an article published in the Financial Times, Madison Marriage reveals the names of 3 fund managers who have changed their fund documents after being accused of flouting EU rules that require fund managers to tell clients how they performed against their chosen benchmarks. EU law provides that funds that have a benchmark must disclose
Brexit has begun to create a shift of financial regulation within Europe. With the resignation of Britain’s EU Commissioner in charge of financial services, Jonathan Hill, Britain is seeing its influence within Europe dissolve. During an interview with the FT, Lord Hill discussed the shift of power that will affect British financial institutions and the
There are about 3.3 million individual shareholders in France representing about 6.5% of all shareholding in the 40 largest French companies, two times less than in 2009. The figure remains approximate because, for unclear reasons, companies are reluctant to reveal their numbers. Banks appear to communicate more openly on this issue. Guillaume Prache, Managing Director
Guillaume Prache, BETTER FINANCE’s Managing Director answered some questions to Revue-Banque regarding his position on the third pillar of the Banking Union, the bail-in and TLAC. Read the full interview in french here.
An article which appeared in the Belgian newspaper L’Echo discusses the reticence of Belgian citizens to take risks with their savings. Guillaume Prache (BETTER FINANCE) and Jacques Berghmans (Treetop Asset Management) discuss why this is the case and what the potential solutions could be. Belgians don’t trust bankers to invest on their behalf. As Mr.