Last week, the center-right and the center-left in the European Parliament reached a preliminary agreement aimed at allowing the EU to force large banks to split their investment banking operations from their traditional activities. Despite strong lobbying from the financial industry, EU regulators took a step forward and the deal could be turned into law.
Interest rates, which sat between zero and 0.25% in the US and 0.5% in the UK for the past years, were supposed to go up this year. However, the Fed decided not to increase them while Andrew Haldane, the BoE’s chief economist proposed an interest cut instead of a raise. With a rising number of
After nine banks – including Barclays, Goldman Sachs and HSBC – agreed on a $2bn settlement in a New York court, case lawyers warn that several global banks might face claims worth billions of pounds in London and Asia in relation to Forex rates rigging. The cases brought the lack of public supervision in the largest
The leaders of the European Parliament are considering a new proposal which would increase the power of its president and political groups and decrease the influence of individual members. The paper, submitted by Secretary General Klaus Welle aims to increase the control that political groups have over the legislative process and to decrease the impact
BETTER FINANCE sent a letter to Lord Jonathan Hill, Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, expressing its concerns on the upcoming Capital Markets Union Action Plan and the involvement of retail investors in this initiative. In recent official speeches, European Commission representatives have focused exclusively on the five priorities for the short term already listed in the CMU
BETTER FINANCE is offering a full-time internship for the duration of 6 months. The successful candidate will assist the team with day-to-day office management, administration as well as internal and external communication. Please note we can only accept candidates able to be enrolled in an exchange programme such as the European ERASMUS+ programme! We are looking forward to welcoming an enthusiastic
EFES, the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership and BETTER FINANCE’s member organization, published yesterday a table listing all recent policy decisions regarding employee share ownership in European countries. Its results called for the remarks of Marc Mathieu, Secretary General of the EFES: "The democratization of employee ownership is emerging as a key element of recovery and
The European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, made proposals to strengthen the role European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECIs) play in democratic political debate at the European level. Among the recommendations are better guidance for ECI organisers, a stronger involvement of the European Parliament and the Council and increased pressure on the Member States to make sure that all
While the beginning of 2014 saw the emergence of an EU-wide cap on bonuses, the rest of the year appears to have been devoted to finding ways around it. Regulatory Technical Standards adopted by the Commission in March 2014 establish that [f]or performance from 1 January 2014 onwards, the variable component shall not exceed 100% of the fixed component of the
IORP stands for Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision. The IORP Directive is designed to create an internal market for occupational retirement provision. The original directive of 3 June 2013 (Directive 2003/41/EC) is now being reworked. The Commission submitted the recast proposal in March last year. Only today, the MEP Rapporteur for IORP II has been