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On Tuesday, 19 September from 15:00 to 16:30 in the European Parliament in Brussels, a public hearing on the “New EU common system for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax abuse in the area of withholding taxes” will take place. The hearing aims to address the burdensome withholding tax refund procedures for

BETTER FINANCE President, Jella Benner-Heinacher, will address the European Parliament ECON committee (Economic and Monetary Affairs) on the European Commission Listing Act Package Proposal. Public Hearing – EU Listing Act: Is the EU Listings Regime fit for purpose? Follow the intervention (as of 2:30 pm CET) : online streaming here.

Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE spoke this morning at the Public Hearing on Sustainable Finance. He reminded that EU savers and individual investors are mostly long-term oriented (much more than institutional investors) and represent the main source of the long-term funding of the EU economy. Despite the fact that BETTER FINANCE was asked

Following the launch of a consultation on April 15, ESMA will now open three hearings on MiFID/MiFIR taking place on July 7 and 8 in Paris. Open hearings will be hold on the markets issues, investor protection issues and commodity derivatives as set out in its Discussion paper and Consultation paper on MiFID II/MiFIR. The hearings will be

On the 26th of April, Funds Europe published an article on the challenges faced by consumers investing in financial products, tackling the issue in light of the upcoming public hearing -set for the 29th of June- and the EC`s "Study on the distribution systems of retail investment products". Called upon to comment, BETTER FINANCE highlighted the

The European Commission organizes a public hearing for the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) on 24 May 2013. Questions will address the  achievements of the individual authorities and effectiveness of the ESFS as a whole, taking into account the possible impact of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The Financial Services

Are you interested in what Jonathan Hill, Commissioner-designate for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, has to say during his hearing in the European Parliament? BETTER FINANCE certainly is. Parliamentary Committees will be "grilling" the Commissioners-to-be until October 7 2014. Jonathan Hill’s turn to answer questions is on Wednesday, October 1 2014, at the same time as

Transparency Task Force is holding an online event, to draw attention to the collective redress action by Stichting Investor Loss Compensation (SILC) for individual Airbus investors who have incurred damages, and to discuss the “Power of Class Actions to get Justice”. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, July 4th, between 6:00 PM and 7:30 PM

Collective Redress Directive – a directive for initiating court actions against companies who infringe consumers rights

The European Commission published a legislative proposal for a regulation on European green bonds, which is supposed to become the high quality voluntary European Green Bond Standard. Its intention is to use the potential of the single market for achieving the EU’s climate and environmental goals in a more efficient way.

There is a growing wave of ESG regulation and an increasing need for ESG reporting – nationally, regionally and internationally. In Europe, ESG rating and data providers are indicative of an immature but growing market, which has seen the emergence of a small number of large non-EU headquartered providers.

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) created the International Sustainability Standards Board “to provide the global financial markets with high-quality disclosures on climate and other sustainability issues.” As part of its work, the ISSB published two exposure drafts on climate-related disclosures and geenral requirements for disclosure of sustainbility-related financial information.

The Corporate Sustainbility Reporting Directive mandates for the creation of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which require companies in scope to report on a full range of sustainbility information (environmental, social and governance). EFRAG is expected to deliver its final draft ESRS to the European Commission in November 2022. The standards are aimed at ensuring

The Banking Union initiative has reduced the number and magnitude of bank failures and the recourse to taxpayers’ money. However, up to now, it has been focused on prudential objectives, not on citizens as banking users’ protection. This has too often generated significant detriment to consumers of banking services.

Yesterday, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its report on high earners for 2017, available for the first time in a user-friendly format on the remuneration of “staff whose professional activities have a material impact on” the risk profile of the financial institution. The Capital Requirements Directive (CRD IV) sets out principles for sound

Today, the European Commission has reported on the latest developments in risk reduction in the EU banking sector, as well as the progress towards an even more integrated and stable EU financial system. As outlined by the Commission, the risk reduction in the EU banking sector is continuing at a sustained pace, while financial stability

The effects of the 2008 financial crisis were supported by European citizens in their double quality as depositors and taxpayers. The overhaul of the banking sector (see article here) put mechanisms for prudential oversight and crisis resolution in place. Just one piece of legislation remains to be added to the European Single Rulebook: the European

To achieve a fully-fledged Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the E.U. must complete the Banking Union (BU) based on a harmonised, risk-sharing banking services sector. The last step remaining is the establishment of a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS, see here). A complete overhaul of the field is hard to obtain since a system  resilient

Largely ignored, Slovenian investors suffer the consequences of the harshest bank rescue to date… The actual implementation of bail-in rules in the case of the Slovenian banks is hitting non-insider retail investors really hard, and does not give them a fair shot at recovering their damages three years after their savings in those banks’ subordinated

Date: Wednesday, 17 April 2024 | Time: 14h00 – 18h00 | Place: University Foundation, 11 Rue d’Egmont, 1000 Brussels PROGRAMME 13h30 – 14h00 | Registration & Coffee 14h00 – 14h10 | Welcome | Aleksandra Mączyńska, Acting Managing Director, BETTER FINANCE 14h10 – 14h30 | Keynote Speech | José Manuel Campa, Chair, European Banking Authority (EBA)

BETTER FINANCE released its updated report on the progress of the European Capital Markets Union (CMU), and the results are discouraging. The report analyses the first five key performance indicators (KPIs) used to assess the progress of the CMU, and adds two additional KPIs to reflect developments in EU capital markets. The report is based

A recent survey conducted by BETTER FINANCE and DSW among 3000 investors across the EU found that withholding tax (WHT) refund procedures are cumbersome and costly, making it difficult or financially unreasonable for non-professional investors to reclaim excess withholding tax on cross-border dividend income. More than 90% of European investors find the WHT reclaim procedure

The Retail Investment Strategy will be key in establishing a Capital Markets Union “that works for people”. The successful combined completion of the Retail Investor Strategy and the CMU Action Plan could generate a quantum leap in investor protection, empowerment and engagement, to their benefit and to the benefit of the CMU, sustainable investing and

[ARCHIVED: This survey is now closed] The refund of withholding taxes on dividends – to avoid double taxation – can be a complicated procedure for private investors/shareholders across the European Union. Many factors must be taken into account, including the tax residence of the shareholder and the country of the issuer (the listed company), administrative

The European Union presented its new plan to renovate the structure of its stock markets. It’s the third wave of reforms since the project was launched six years ago. The EU has been working on the creation of a capital markets union (CMU), which has been affected by the UK’s departure after Brexit. One of

Access to equity market data is essential for “retail” investors to make informed investment decisions. However, new research by BETTER FINANCE [1] found that online equity market data published by the four largest EU equity markets (in 2019, according to ESMA) are de facto not or just partially accessible to non-professional users.[2] Equity trading venues (Regulated

Today the European Parliament (EP) voted on the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee’s own-initiative report on the further development of the Capital Markets Union (CMU).[1] The report calls for specific measures to help finance businesses, promote long-term and cross-border investment, strengthen market architecture and support retail investors. With more than 15 resolutions proposed or

24 September 2020 – The European Commission’s (EC) Directorate-General for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA) published a third action plan to build a Capital Markets Union (CMU) – this time for “people and businesses” – which sets 16 policy and regulatory objectives in order to “finally complete the Capital Markets

The crisis- and Brexit-laden context have given the project new arguments to be on the European agenda. […] This is the second try for the Capital Markets Union (CMU). Europe had launched this project five years ago with the idea of supporting the financing of the economy via the capital markets. […] There is now

[A provisional version of the publication was available in January 2024. The document has been updated to the final March 2024 version] The report by CFA Institute and BETTER FINANCE critically reviews the EU’s listing rules, targeting reforms to improve public market accessibility for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It aims to foster debate amidst

BETTER FINANCE welcomes the horizontal and vertical dimensions represented in the objectives of the taxonomy. Furthermore, we would like to suggest expanding the horizontal dimension based on the promotion of gender equality which should not be based only on the gender pay gap but also on freedom of expression, assembly, etc.

BETTER FINANCE believes that the European Commission should not further diminish the ambition of ESRS. At the very least, there should be a set of mandatory disclosure requirements (such as GHG emissions) irrespective of materiality assessments made by companies.

For a decade, BETTER FINANCE has flagged the persistently low real returns in EU long-term and pension savings. As government and occupational pensions dwindle, Public Authorities urge earlier and increased savings for retirement. Yet, this advice often disregards a fundamental issue: inadequate, sometimes negative, long-term real returns after inflation.  BETTER FINANCE reports disprove the claim

The European Commission has issued the Delegated Act on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to enhance transparency in sustainability reporting by companies. However, it faces criticism for weakening key aspects of the initial proposal by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and neglecting vital concerns. Critics

BETTER FINANCE, as an independent financial expertise center serving European financial services users, represents millions of individual investors in Europe who stand to benefit from the draft non-financial reporting Standards developed by EFRAG. BETTER FINANCE welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft Delegated Act (DA) by the European Commission concerning the European Sustainability