There is bad news for Belgian investors as Belgium and France have reformed a new tax treaty which, according to two sources close to the negotiators, would stop the Cour de cassation, one of the four courts of last resort in France, from allowing it to reduce the double imposition of dividends. The current convention
The past weekend`s oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia delivered a second shock to the already economic disruption brought upon by the coronavirus. A third coup will follow, as the sharp falls in financial markets destroy wealth and magnify the damage to the economy of countries around the globe. […] Covid-19 is an
Pension investors risk overpaying tens of thousands of pounds in fees as “shameful” industry practices make it hard for customers to identify and compare charges. […] Opaque and complex fee structures make it extremely difficult for investors to work out what they might pay, or to compare different providers. […] Holly Mackay, founder of Boring Money, an independent
The European Commission is probing the effectiveness of the product governance rules introduced to the industry in 2018 in its latest consultation on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid). […] In a 94-page consultation document, published yesterday (February 26), the commission stated there was some debate over the efficiency of product requirements and asked participants
The fall in global equity and oil prices seen on Monday – and a simultaneous surge in the gold price – shows how investors have been complacent with regards to the coronavirus. The disease – which has spread outside of China – is impacting global markets in a way that was “underestimated”, according to Nigel
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, published its Strategy on Sustainable Finance. The strategy sets out how ESMA will place sustainability at the core of its activities by embedding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in its work. The key priorities for ESMA include transparency obligations, risk analysis on
[…] The European Commission’s so-called “taxonomy” for classifying green investments should address three important questions. Unfortunately, the Commission’s one-dimensional approach disregards two of the three, with potentially damaging consequences. […] The Commission’s focus on the question of which economic activities are sustainable entails defining and listing all activities that contribute to the energy transition, such
BlackRock Inc. will ditch investments with high sustainability-related risk as climate concerns drive a sweeping change in the way the world’s largest asset manager invests its $7 trillion in assets. […] Activists have been calling on BlackRock to do more around the climate crisis. […] Operating in more than 30 countries, and as one of
The Danish financial regulator, the FSA, and its Norwegian counterpart Finanstilsynet, stated that the increasing supply of investment products marketed as sustainable can increase the risk of greenwashing, meaning products could be marketed as green without living up to the name. The FSA said that this calls for the tightening of supervisory efforts, in order
Closing Speech by Guillaume Prache at the Sustainable Value for Money Conference on 20 November 2019 — Download the PDF version here — BETTER FINANCE strongly supports the ambitions, the strong focus and considerable efforts of the EC with respect to sustainable finance. In particular: The so called “taxonomy” which we ask to be fact