On 15 April 2014, the European Parliament adopted legislation that will replace the current Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). The new legislation comprises a revised directive (MiFID II) aimed at making markets more resilient by overhauling over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading and curbing high-frequency trading, as well as a new regulation (MiFIR) setting out requirements for
The EU Council’s Legal Service issued a favorable opinion regarding the inclusion of foreign exchange activities in the scope of FTT. According to an opinion published on March 14 2014, the inclusion of spot currency transactions would “not necessarily be incompatible” with EU law. However, the Council acknowledges that adding foreign currency transactions to the existing proposal would “exceed the Council’s
"Six years after being bailed out by taxpayers and still majority-owned by the government, Royal Bank of Scotland chalked up yet another big annual pre-tax operating loss, of $8.2 bilion ($13.7 bilion) for 2013. that will not deter it from dishing out £ 576m in bonuses." In The Economist, print edition, "The world this
In an interview with Investment & Pensions Europe magazine, Michael Schmidt, managing director at Union Investment, said that regulatory myopia is driving German institutionals out of equities. According to him, a growing number of German institutional investors had reduced their equity exposure in recent years and were instead increasing exposure to real assets such as infrastructure and real estate. Schmidt
The European Union will ease the financial reforms that would force big banks to ring-fence their retails departments from riskier investment operations. On the European Commission draft proposal that the Financial Times had access to, the separation is no longer mandatory and would be less costly than first envisaged. National supervisors are also given wide
On December2, the Federation of European Accountants (FEE) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) held a joint roundtable to discuss the report by Mr Maystadt and his preliminary recommendations regarding the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Of importance in the debate with EU Stakeholders was the question whether the adoption system
On October 18, the Eurobarometer published the second part of a survey commissioned by the European Parliament entitled “One year to go to the 2014 European elections”. The poll shows that over half of EU citizens feels that the European Union is best placed to regulate banks and when asked about guarantees for citizens’ banks
On September 23 MEPs from the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee met together with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to debate the EU’s current priorities on the financial agenda including the banking union. Up for discussion were the practical details of setting up a single bank resolution system and fund, the upcoming bank balance
The New York Times has released a video on the “preferentes” case, a huge fraud where hundreds of thousands Spanish savers have suffered massive losses, and portraying the organization of collective actions by ADICAE, a Spanish member of EuroFinUse. To watch the video click here
Mr. Vilhjalmur Bjarnason, Secretary General of Samtök fjárfesta, the Icelandic Shareholder Association and a member of EuroFinUse, has been elected as member of the Icelandic Parliament on 27 April 2013. More information on Samtök fjárfesta here.