“Like a tax”. This is how Stefan Beiner, head of asset management at Publica, Switzerland’s largest pension fund, described the recent European Central Bank’s (ECB) interest rate decision. He believes that ultimately savers will be the ones having to pay via low interest. Mr. Beiner also said that although the rate cut had been largely “expected
Better Finance has long denounced the disproportionate influence by financial institutions on the policy making process though the use of strong financial lobbies who seek to limit financial regulation or adjust it to their advantage. Over the last years BETTER FINANCE has repeatedly called for a more balanced representation in the European Commission’s advisory system
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. BETTER FINANCE aims to inform the European voters of what candidate MEPs stand for with respect to EU citizens as savers and users
Yesterday EuroFinUse, WWF and VoteWatch Europe were the last remaining candidates standing at the coveted European Public Affairs Awards, eagerly awaiting the announcement of the winner of the “NGO of The Year” category. The EPA awards single out organisations for excellence in their respective sector, while aiming to encourage best practice in the European public affairs
In his article “Financial Regulators’ Fine Mess”, the former chief economist of the IMF, Simon Johnson, points out that the recent $13 billion settlement between the US Department of Justice and JP Morgan Chase (JPM) is nothing more than a “symbolic punishment”. JPM accepted the settlement following charges that the bank overstated the quality of
Dear Members, Yesterday afternoon we learned that our efforts of the last few months paid off. On Wednesday 20 November, the European Parliament voted on a proposal for a Key Information Document (KID) aimed at addressing a chronic lack of transparency in terms of charges, performance, and risks for customers and end-users of financial products.
Economists Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller are this year’s Nobel Prize winners for economics. The Swedish Riksbank in memory of Alfred Nobel decided to award the Nobel Prize to the three economists “for their empirical analysis of asset prices”. The economists’ research showed that while it is difficult to predict
On Friday September 13, Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner responsible for Internal Market and Services, stressed the importance of the commitment to global implementation of financial reforms in the G20 jurisdictions. At Eurofi Financial Forum in Vilnius, Barnier reiterated the need for ‘increased supervision and greater transparency in the markets’, as well as the further
EuroFinUse Managing Director was interviewed in the Financial Times with regards to EuroFinUse Research Report on ‘The Real Return of Private Pensions’ released on Thursday June 20, 2013. ‘Saving for retirement is “a losing game” for hundreds of millions of European citizens as high charges and taxes destroy the value of pensions’. “If pension savers