The European Commission is hurrying to the retirement industry against EU legislation that could hurt the sector. The European Market Infrastructure Regulation, passed in 2012, provides for an obligation for pension funds to put aside more money in order to comply with the EU legislation on derivatives trading. It sets minimal rules on the collateral
An individual investor might be worried about the funds he picks or about his assets manager, but according to the theory called “behaviour gap”, the investor should first be worried about…himself. This tendency for investors to underperform the funds they are invested in is called the “behaviour gap”. The following hypothesis illustrates this theory: •
Eurostat has released its figures for the third quarter of 2016. The household saving rate in the euro area slightly dropped from 12.8% in the second quarter of 2016 to 12.6% in the third quarter of 2016. Similarly, the household investment rate in the euro area dropped from 8.6% at the second quarter to 8.5%
In December 2016, after several months of discussion between the institutions, the COREPER (representatives of the Member States) has agreed on the revision of this Directive. This amendment aims at encouraging transparent and active engagement by shareholders of listed companies. The revision provides for new requirements such as the oversight of directors’ remuneration, the identification
In a study published last year, the Transparency Task Force revealed that pension savers were hit by more than 100 charges ( often hidden) representing a third of the total amount of their pension funds over a lifetime of savings. In order to remedy this situation, the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK has proposed
Following a decision from the UK government in December 2016, it will more difficult for French expatriates to repatriate their savings funds from the UK when they retire in France. The decision is the result of a reform passed in the UK in 2015 which provides that pension savings cannot be withdrawn before 55
“Volkswagen and its former chief executive Martin Winterkorn must face a US lawsuit brought by American investors who allege the company improperly inflated its share price by cheating on emissions tests, a judge in California has ruled. […] The investors allege that VW committed securities fraud both through the cheating and by failing to tell
When taking into account pensions and lifetime savings, many citizens have significantly more money stashed away with the asset-management industry than they do with banks, yet the industry’s oligopolistic ways have ensured that fees have remained unchanged over the years resulting in some of the highest operating margins of any industry. There is one important
The three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) responsible for adopting PRIIPs regulatory technical standards (RTS) into legislation have failed to reach an agreement on the European Commission’s proposed amendments to the directive, casting doubt over whether they can meet their February 2017 deadline. In a letter to the European Commission sent on 22 December signed by
The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have published their response to the European Commission on the amendments the Commission proposes to make to the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on key information documents (KIDs) for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPS). The European Commission endorsed the draft RTS on 30 June 2016 but during the