Two finance ministers, France’s Michel Sapin and Austria’s Hans-Jörg Schelling, issued a joint plea to nine other finance ministers who had – back in 2013 – agreed to proceed with the tax. With this letter they “hope to breathe new life into talks on the FTT”. The financial transaction tax has been described as a
Jonathan Hill, Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union proposes to dispose of three major pieces of financial legislation in the institutional pipeline. Background: Shortly after the new composition of the Commission had been confirmed, Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s Vice-President responsible for “Better Regulation”, asked all Commissioners to inform him about
The European Central Bank organized a second comprehensive stress test for over 120 most important banks in the EU. The test, announced in January 2014, will be delivering results this Sunday, October 26 (see a detailed timeline). The European Banking Authority (EBA) compares the stress test to a tactics employed in the construction sector: “when
Passive funds – also known as index funds – are passively managed according to a pre-defined strategy, which means that their portfolios mirror the components of a market index. Research carried out by Charles Stanley Pan Asset now shows that these funds have done better than active funds by 4.73% on average over 5 years
According to the latest Nomura Global Markets Research report, investment consultants do not add value in terms of fund selection. Criticism arose amid concerns over their cost and their worth to the industry, with the report concluding that investment consultants can find themselves pushed out of some markets. “The tortoise and the hare: passive is the new
Analysing "The European Political Twittersphere" and the network of top users discussing the 2014 European Elections, the University of Vienna classified ADICAE, the Spanish consumer organization and member of BETTER FINANCE, as the 26th most influential NGO on Twitter about the European elections. Congratulations to ADICAE! Please find the results of the study here.
The European Authority in charge of Insurance and Pensions – EIOPA – just issued discussion paper on conflicts of interest in direct and intermediated sales of insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) at the request of the European Commission. This consultation focuses on: the steps that insurance intermediaries or insurance undertakings might reasonably be expected to take to identify,
Following the success of the BETTER FINANCE Conference last week at the European Parliament, BETTER FINANCE is already organising its next conference in cooperation with the Icelandic Shareholders Association Samtök Fjárfesta. The conference "Back to Basics – Economies Before, During and After the Crisis" will be held on the 27th of June 2014 in Reykjavik. Please
We are grateful for the support shown by the Expert Corporate Governance Service (ECGS) for the BETTER FINANCE Manifesto! "ECGS supports the EuroFinuse initiative on BETTER FINANCE Manifesto ! ECGS supports the initiative of EuroFinuse launched in February 2014 for better finance and improved consumer protection, long term investments and better governance." Please find more
In an article in “The Telegraph”, Tidjane Thiam, group chief executive of Prudential and chairman of the Association of British Insurers, and Katherine Garrett, chief executive of Alliance Trust PLC, underlined that “without a significant increase in business investment, underpinned by savings, a recovery may not lead to sustained growth”. The European Commission already recognized that