VFPK, the association of German company pension schemes, claimed that the ECB’s recent decision to lower its benchmark interest rate has been “tantamount to expropriation from private households and savers”. According to its chairman Helmut Aden, people “did not have a chance to accrue assets for their pension provision”. He believes the ECB and politicians should “end
On April 14, the ESAs (European Supervisory Authorities) launched a consultation on the draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) outlining the framework for the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). The consultation is aimed at gathering public views on how to ensure a proportionate implementation of the requirements and will be open until July 14. Given that RTS cover the
The BETTER FINANCE Conference on 28 March 2014 at the European Parliament Please find here the speech of Steven Maijoor, Chair of Esma, on "How to restore European household’s confidence in long term savings and investments" Excerpt “Allow me to begin my thoughts by summarising the current situation of the European financial sector:
Seven major international banks are grappling with a growing number of class actions from US pension funds, following investigations into alleged manipulation of the global foreign exchange market. The lawsuits allege banks violated federal antitrust law when their senior traders shared sensitive market information in chat rooms to execute a variety of strategies to move
"A gun held to the head" of Cyprus and Portugal. That is the strong language used by several MEPs describing the Troika’s role and impact on these two bailout countries. Whilst the Troika monitors whether bailout countries carry out the required reforms, the European Parliament in turn will now carry out its own inquiry and
The European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Jorg Asmussen will leave the bank to join the new German governing coalition. Mr. Asmussen, one of the most influential member of the ECB and a Mario Draghi ally, will become deputy labor minister in the new German government and will shortly resign from his post at
Following criticism by Scandinavia’s financial industry of the European Banking Authority’s proposal for reporting requirement for capital buffers, backed by the European Banking Federation in Brussels, the European Commission decided to delay the scheduled plans for one month. Bankers’ associations in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland are urging the Commission to reject this set of
Two weeks to go to the EuroFinUse and IVA International Conference in Vienna on Financial Repression and yet another example of financial repression appears in the news. On 4 September Bloomberg announced that Poland will take over and cancel government bonds held by its privately managed pension funds as part of a system revamp in
Founded in 2005, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) is a coalition of about 200 civil society groups campaigning for lobbying transparency and stronger ethics rules for both lobbyists and those working in the EU institutions. They are seeking a coalition-building and outreach coordinator to further strengthen the ALTER-EU alliance, broaden awareness
EuroFinUse published a position paper on Crowdfunding, a very important emerging trend in financial services. Financial services users, savers and retail investors are not opposed to innovation, particularly with regard to the emergence of Crowdfunding, which could actually dramatically improve the delivery of retail financial services, provided the EU regulators find an adequate user protection