Markus Ferber – German EPP Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs – expounded his views on the Capital Markets Union (CMU), ahead of his intervention at the BETTER FINANCE conference on the topic. Whereas Mr Ferber stresses that it is indeed vital for Europe to
MiFID 1 (Directive 2004/39/EC) introduced a set of principles and rules on best execution, taking into account price, costs, speed, likelihood of execution and settlement, size, nature or any other consideration relevant to the execution of the order. These rules were supplemented by level 2 measures (Article 44 of the Directive 2006/73/EChttp://www.esma.europa.eu/system/files/Dir___73_2006.pdf) detailing the criteria
In its latest Newsletter, Better Markets reflects on Obama’s State of the Union speech of 21st January 2015. The Washington DC based public-interest organization applauds Obama’s resolve to use his veto to prevent attacks to weaken or kill financial reform: As the President recognizes, it is vital to the strength of our nation that financial
On Wednesday November 9 the Council issued a negotiating mandate for the revision of the Directive on Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP II). Focusing on four objectives, this mandate unifies the position of all 28 Member States and gives a green light to negotiations with the parliament. The four objectives of the negotiating mandate
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union back in June 2014. As with every EU directive, the Member States must now transform it into their national law within a given time frame. MiFID II will apply from January 2017 on. One of the major
In November 2011, concerns over the “domination” of the European Commission expert groups by business interests led the European Parliament to freeze the budget for expert groups. In September 2012, the Parliament released the budget on the understanding that expert groups would significantly improve based on conditions set by the EP which would ensure that MEPs and the Commission would work
As reported in the latest issue of Funds Europe, dark pools could be in for more scrutiny and eventually obliged to publish more information to investors. All alternative trading venues used by institutions and other investors, so-called dark pools, should be investigated in light of accusations by the New York attorney general that Barclays was
According to a survey carried out by Ernst & Young (EY), Europe’s retail investors have a lower understanding of investment products than their counterparts in the US and Asia. The survey, covering 42 managers representing 30% of regulated funds, including Europe’s UCITS funds, concludes that this presents a major challenge for managers’ growth aspirations. Michael Fergusson, regulated funds leader at EY, believes
The makeup of the banking landscape and the choice of the type of banks is a public policy issue that concerns all citizens. The problem is not that there are too many banks in Belgium, as suggested by the Belgian Governor of the National Bank, but that there are too many similar banks! Find out
On Thursday 3 April, the European Parliament voted to cap interbank fees for all card payments. European lawmakers backed a plan that would see bank charges for processing payments via credit cards capped at 0.3 percent of the transaction value (and at a maximum of € 0.7 or 0.2% for debit cards) for all national and transnational transactions. According to the European Commission,