Following the European Parliament’s vote in favour of the proposal to revise the Shareholders Rights Directive onJuly 8, Arnaud Houdmont from BETTER FINANCE brought attention to BETTER FINANCE’s concerns regarding the "say on pay" rule approved by MEPs in an article in French daily L’Agefi. Since the rule stipulates that it is up to each member state to decide whether a vote on remuneration
In a 2013 article, BETTER FINANCE help Rolling Stone magazine to prove its point on price-fixing scandals and the conspiracy theories which seem to believe "the world’s largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything". According to the publication, "the Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals
Guillaume Prache, Managing Director at BETTER FINANCE, was quoted in the Financial Times on the "governance of investment funds". Following the refusal of the Pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s proposal to takeover of UK’s AstraZenecamay and several shareholders have asked Astra’s board to reopen takeover talks as soon as legally allowed in August, the debate is now focused on the "conflict
On 30 September Guillaume Prache, EuroFinUse’s Managing Director, was quoted in the Financial Times in relation to the ‘elitist focus’ of the mutual fund industry which was criticised following research by Mackay Williams. Research showed that the focus of the fund industry on the needs of the wealthiest 10 per cent of Europeans has cost
On Monday Les Echos reported on the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) study on performance fees charged by UCITs which, together with inflation (albeit to a lesser extent), various charges and entry/exit fees, have on average reduced European investors’ returns by 29%. BETTER FINANCE urges that ESMA extend the time horizon of its study, as
In his speech at the 2016 ECB/EC financial integration conference in Frankfurt, Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, discusses the Capital Markets Union and the impact it will have on retail investors. Please read the full speech here.
In the next two years, European investment funds will be subjected to two regulatory changes. If MIFIDII is expected to have a limited impact, according to experts, PRIPS raises more concerns. MiFID II is supposed to enter into force in 2017; however, since the financial sector is not ready, it will take more time. The
In an article published in the Financial Times on the 15th of November, Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, was quoted regarding the income money managers are making through securities lending.BlackRock overhauled its securities lending division, making it cheaper for companies to borrow securities. The asset management firm cut the requested amount of collateral,
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
BETTER FINANCE’s concerns on the review of Shareholder Rights Directive were echoed in two recent articles by Daniel Hunter in Freshbusinessthinking.com and in InternationalTrade platform. Speaking at the 15th European Corporate Governance Conference held in Milan, Guillaume Prache, Managing Director at BETTER FINANCE, stressed that many individual shareholders of EU companies will still have to pay high fees to exercise their voting