According to The Guardian, a group of UK Labour MPs believes pension savers should be allowed to question retirement fund managers and to elect trustees to occupational schemes. The demand follows a string of critical reports on the pension fund industry including BETTER FINANCE’s "Pension Savings: The Real Return" in which it is concluded that in Britain, pension
Juan Manuel Viver, Policy Officer at BETTER FINANCE, was quoted in Europolitics on European long-term investment funds (ELTIFs). Since the negotiations are now entering the final phase, the main concern is the protection of retail investors. Juan Manuel Viver belives ELTIFs are not really "appropriate for small investors since these funds are not very liquid". "Since these new funds are
Guillaume Prache – Managing Director of EuroFinUse – was interviewed for an article in the Dutch pensions and investor news magazine (Nederlands Pensioen en Beleggingsnieuws) on the disproportionate influence of the industry lobby groups compared to the underrepresentation of the user side of financial products. Mr Prache stressed the fact that the European Parliament adopted
According to Funds Europe, Vanguard, the investment management firm, publicly categorised smart beta as active management in a newly published paper on the method of investing. Despite being one of the largest providers of passive investment strategies, Vanguard recognises that significant lossesincurred by large cap and growth stocks during the 2000 to 2002 bear market led investors to seek a move
In a book to be published in May “Faster, Higher, Farther: The Volkswagen Scandal”, Jack Ewing reveals new details of the Diesel Gate conspiracy covering up the fact that its cars were designed to deceive pollution regulators. It all started with the publication of the results of a test realized in 2014 by graduate students
The European Commission proposed a regulation to establish an EU programme to support two non-profit organisations, Finance Watch and BETTER FINANCE, for the 2017-2020 period. The programme’s overall budget will amount to a maximum of €6 million during that period, with a maximum 60% co-funding rate. Thanks to these EU grants, BETTER FINANCE will be
Boardroom executive pay has been slammed as “rewarding failure” and “unacceptable” following fresh attacks from top City investors on remuneration practices. After a contentious AGM voting season, Legal & General boss Nigel Wilson warned executives are paid “too much”, adding pay levels were “not fit for purpose” and have resulted in “a poor alignment of
In support of its Slovenian member, VZMD, BETTER FINANCE has closely followed the ongoing case of the bail-in of subordinated bondholders in five Slovenian banks (NLB, NKBM, Abanka, Probanka and Factor Banka) to refinance these struggling institutions. In February this year BETTER FINANCE issued a Press Release in support of VZMD’s legal battle to stop
EU leaders met in Brussels yesterday and continued their discussion today on the British reform proposals, the migration crisis but also on their economic views and Bank Breakups. Brussels is worried about the prospect of an actual Brexit but relaxed about the outcome of the summit. British Bankers were at pains to dispel the Franco-German
Since the financial crisis in 2008 several European governments have been looking for new adapted regulations to prevent tax payers from footing the bill for bank bailouts. In consequence, France is considering allowing banks to issue a new type of senior debt under the potential name of “senior junior”, permitting to absorb losses in times