The rapid growth of the securitization market is said to have played an important role in the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and was a key factor, amongst others, in triggering the 2008 global financial crisis. Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential and commercial mortgages, loans or
The team at BETTER FINANCE is deeply saddened by the news of the sudden departure of Leif Vindevågvice-president of the European Federation of Financial Services Users. We all wish to convey to convey our most sincere condolences to Leif’s family, friends and colleagues at Aktiespararna, our Swedish member organisation. Leif was a strong supporter of
According to a leaked draft of the European Union’s first proposal to the US on trade in services and investment, financial services will not be included in the negotiations at the next round of talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). In an attached note to Member States, the European Commission proposes that, until the US engages on regulatory cooperation, the
Erkki Liikanen, Governor of the Bank of Finland and chairman of the high-level group established in 2012 to examine possible reforms to the structure of the EU’s banking sector, suggested that organisations that carry out banking activities but are not banks may need to be regulated like traditional banks following a significant increase of such activities.
The BETTER FINANCE Conference on 28 March 2014 at the European Parliament Please find here the speech of Olivier Guersent, European Commission DG Internal Market and Services Head of Cabinet.
The launch of the BETTER FINANCE Manifesto was accompanied by the BETTER FINANCE Questionnaire – a few concrete questions sent to all candidates and major political parties and groups in the EU. The results of the questionnaire will be published before the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The voting on the European Commission’s proposal on indices used as benchmarks in financial instruments and financial contracts scheduled for today was postponed to 30 January and an agreement on new rules for regulating benchmarks such as the Libor or Euribor indices is no longer expected to be reached during the current parliamentary term. In September 2013, following
A little while ago, on October 3, the European Commission launched a consultation inviting stakeholders to share their views on Crowdfunding. Being an issue of growing importance not only for the EU economy as a whole but especially for retail investors and other financial services users, EuroFinUse welcomes this initiative and presented its response. EuroFinUse
Following the ECB’s package for banking supervision in the Eurozone, announced in early October, and in particular since the “bail ins” of bank bondholders, the Bank of Italy said this week that Italian cities’ human rights could be at risk if the European Union forces subordinated bondholders to take losses or convert their holdings to
A few weeks ago Steve Johnson in an article in the Financial Times pointed out that billions of dollars are being wasted on investment advice. According to research carried out by the Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, pension funds and other large investors are wasting billions of dollars a year on worthless advice from investment