EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly is demanding more transparency on so-called expert groups that help frame future EU proposals through, for instance, the publishing of the minutes of meetings as well as positions advanced by individual members. O’Reilly had launched her own inquiry in May 2014 following broad concerns over how the experts were appointed, the
Following last month’s delay of MiFID II, which was met with approval by the industry, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) urges European supervisors to set a new timetable for its ratification. The law which is to include greater investor protection and transparency requirements was planned to be implemented in January 2017 but this
According to the Financial Times diaries of the six members of the ECB’s executive board show that the decision-makers have met representatives of the private sector shortly before policy meetings. The diaries, made available to the FT under EU freedom of information rules, reveal engagements with the private sector. They cover the schedule of ECB’s
Savers and individual investors are slowly finding their deserved place at the heart of the "CMU" initiative. So far none of the short term priorities identified by the EC had actually focused on them. Whereas these are definitely steps in the right direction, in our view the CMU Action Plan could still be more ambitious
A recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research found that despite good economic indicators and rising salaries, Germans on average missed out on 20.000 euros of household income between 2003 and 2013 when taking inflation into account. The main reasons for these surprising conclusions are the fact that house prices decreased in the
The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics has been given a new responsability and will now also function as Product Information Centre for Pensions (PiA). The role of the PiA is to simulate the performance of Riester- and Rüruppensions and rate them in terms of risks and opportunities. The Bund der Versicherten welcomes this decision, as
Funds Europe reports that JP Morgan Asset Management announced today (July 1) it will cut fees for many of its Luxembourg funds, aiming at equating costs paid by individual investors and those paid by institutions. Operational and administrative fees of some Luxembourg funds are switched from a fixed cost of savings to a capped, variable cost. According to JP
A wide consultation on the internal market situation in order to measure how fragmented it is from a financial services perspective and to find out what can be done to encourage a widely cross-border activity is to be launched during the following months – probably in September – by the European Commission. Mr. Gabriel Bernardino,
The world’s largest global custody bank by safe custody assets, the Bank of New York Mellon, has been fined £126m by the UK’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), for breaking rules designed to protect more than £1tn worth of assets held on behalf of UK-based clients. The bank stands accused of “failing to implement
BETTER FINANCE kindly invites you to its International Conference on "A Capital Markets Union for Growth, Jobs and Citizens" on the 6 of May. This year’s International Conference of the European Federation of Financial Services Users will address the European Capital Markets Union for growth, jobs and citizens initiative and ways to better attract savings to capital markets