BETTER FINANCE’s International Investors' Conference “Empowering Minority Shareholders and Advancing Individual Investor Rights,” co-organised with its member organisation AEMEC in Madrid, brought high-level stakeholders together to address critical developments in retail investor protection and shareholder engagement. Through panel discussions and keynote speeches, the event reaffirmed the need for robust, inclusive, and enforceable investor frameworks within the EU’s capital markets.
The speakers and the participants were welcomed by José F. Estévez, Vice-Chair of the BETTER FINANCE Legal Committee and Vice-Chair at Cremades & Calvo Sotelo and Aleksandra Mączyńska, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, underscoring the importance of defending minority shareholders as a cornerstone of corporate governance, financial democracy, and the rule of law.
Empowering investors through growth, transparency, and reform
The conference kicked off with a keynote intervention by Enma López, Federal Secretary for Economic Policy and Digital Transformation of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, which provided an overview of the country’s strong economic performance, underpinned by resilient GDP growth, high employment levels, and substantial inflows of foreign direct investment.
She also reiterated the Spanish Government's commitment to enhancing minority shareholder rights through legislative reforms and called for improved financial education and market transparency to strengthen public participation in capital markets.
Strengthening democratic participation in corporate decision-making
Moderated by Florian Beckermann, Managing Director of the Austrian Shareholder Association IVA, the first panel explored the central role of annual general meetings (AGMs) as the only formal forum where retail shareholders can engage directly with company boards. Christiane Hölz, Managing Director of DSW, the leading shareholder association in Germany, noted that the AGM is the most important day for retail shareholders, as they provide a rare moment of transparency and accountability from corporate executives. However, since the pandemic, participation rates have fallen, especially where virtual-only formats have been introduced. Hölz criticised the trend towards virtual-only AGMs, noting that participation and question quality have dropped significantly. Moreover, votes are often cast two weeks before the meeting, disconnecting shareholders from the live debate.
David Kovel, Managing Partner at Kirby McInerney, provided a comparative lens with the US, echoing these concerns, referring that virtual-only AGMs are often favoured by opaque or underperforming companies seeking to limit scrutiny. While hybrid models are increasingly common in the US, he cautioned that virtual-only formats pose reputational and legal risks.
As a representative of the industry, Antonia Nedkova, Head of Shareholder Relations and Digital Content at Repsol, explained that despite regulatory efforts like SRD II, issuers still face barriers in identifying and contacting their shareholders due to the omnibus account structure and lack of cooperation from intermediaries (banks and custodians). She shared Repsol’s experience in building a communication programme that reached over 100 million shares’ worth of retail holdings. Enforcing the argument of shareholder engagement, Sander Van Prooijen, Head of Business & Sales at Finvictum, indicated that retail investor participation increases significantly when communication is personalised and accessible. Tools like Finivictum, which enable issuers to collect and enrich shareholder data, help companies shift from mass disclosure to meaningful engagement, using email, dashboards, and even social media.
Representing the European policy landscape, MEP Fernández, member of the European Parliament’s ECON Committee, shared a sobering view of the EU's current legislative cycle, noting a lack of concrete progress on deepening the single market, removing internal investment barriers, and completing the Capital Markets Union. While public consultations abound, tangible reforms remain scarce.
The session underlined that shareholder rights are only as strong as the mechanisms that enable them.
Revisiting the Retail Investment Strategy
Following the lively discussion during the first panel, Manuel Pardos, a prominent Spanish consumer rights advocate and President of ADICAE - BETTER FINANCE’s other Spanish member organisation - offered a critical assessment of the European Commission’s Retail Investment Strategy (RIS), drawing attention to shortcomings in the protection of small savers and consumer investors.
He advocated for the establishment of an independent financial ombudsman at the national level. He called for enhanced enforcement, meaningful transparency, and a prohibition on incentive structures that misalign the interests of advisors and retail clients.
Towards a functional framework for collective redress in capital markets
The second panel, moderated by Jella Benner-Heinacher, Senior Advisor for Foreign Affairs at DSW – Germany's leading investor association for individual investors and BETTER FINANFCE member brought together leading experts and practitioners to assess the shortcomings of the current EU collective redress framework and explore tangible ways to strengthen access to justice for retail investors in cross-border cases.
Benner-Heinacher opened with a critical assessment of the Collective Redress Directive (CRD). While intended to harmonise representative actions in the EU, it excludes key areas such as direct shareholdings and financial instruments, unless Member States explicitly expand the scope.
A major point of consensus was the need for an EU-wide opt-out system, especially in cross-border cases. The opt-in model, where investors must actively join proceedings, leads to limited participation. The Dutch system, described by Flip Schreurs, Chairman of the Fiat Chrysler Investors Recovery Stichting, is often cited as best practice. Schreurs presented the Stellantis investor litigation in the Netherlands as a live example of collective redress in action. He outlined how their independent Stichting operates with strict governance and transparency rules, and how the Dutch WAMCA law allows for robust, court-approved settlements. However, even under this system, extensive documentation and procedural barriers remain, especially for foreign claimants.
Several speakers underscored that third-party litigation funding and after-the-event insurance are critical for unlocking access to justice for retail investors. However, Mark Northway, Chairman at the World Federation of Investors, and Iacopo Destri, Partner at C-Lex Studio Legale, emphasised the need for regulatory safeguards.
Northway highlighted how, in the UK, both litigation funders and regulators can unintentionally undermine collective actions. Presenting the Spanish perspective, Rafael Tripero, AEMEC Advisor and Managing Director at Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, pointed to persistent reluctance among Spanish courts to accept class actions. He advocated for holding board members criminally liable as an effective deterrent against corporate wrongdoing.
The panellists converged on the conclusion that Europe must do more to ensure retail investors, most prominently, expand the scope of EU collective redress, ensure opt-out systems, regulate litigation funding fairly, and improve transparency through a central register, as these are urgent and actionable priorities.
ESG integration and strategic resilience
The conference continued with a compelling speech by José Ramón Bauzá, former President of the Balearic Islands (2011-2015) and MEP (2019–2024), positioning the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors as essential elements of corporate risk management.
Bauzá began by addressing the changing global landscape, where the convergence of deglobalisation, geopolitical instability, and a growing backlash against ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) practices—particularly in the US—poses a risk to sustainable investment momentum. He stressed that this backlash is anti-growth, anti-investment, and anti-shareholder value. Despite this trend, he argued, Europe is uniquely positioned to lead in sustainability by embedding ESG into its financial frameworks through instruments like the CSRD, SFDR, and taxonomy regulation.
He noted that a growing majority of institutional investors use ESG criteria to inform voting decisions at shareholder meetings. Besides, he shared that the companies targeted by ESG-focused shareholder campaigns outperformed the market by an average of 4.7% over the following 12 months.
Mr Bauzá closed with a clear strategic message: Sustainability is no longer optional, it is a strategic enabler of resilience, access to capital, and long-term competitiveness. He urged policymakers, investors, and companies to move from intention to implementation, to see ESG not as a constraint but as an engine for value creation.
The way forward
In the closing session, Javier Cremades, Secretary General of AEMEC and Lawyer at Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, and Guillaume Prache, President of BETTER FINANCE, reflected on the progress achieved and the road ahead. Mr Cremades revisited the origins of shareholder activism in Spain and reaffirmed AEMEC’s unwavering commitment to minority shareholder protection, including through legal action where required.
Mr Prache extended his appreciation to AEMEC for their longstanding partnership and reiterated BETTER FINANCE’s role as the independent voice of individual investors in Europe. He underscored that investor trust and market participation are founded on transparency, effective redress, and cross-border solidarity. He concluded with a call to action: to ensure that retail investors are not only consulted, but heard, protected, and empowered through meaningful policy outcomes.