ESMA’s Guidelines on funds’ names using ESG or sustainability-related terms in their names propose the use of quantitative thresholds whereby “if an investment fund has any ESG-, or impact-related words in its name, a minimum proportion of 80% of its investments should be used to meet the environmental or social characteristics or sustainable investment objectives…”
BETTER FINANCE, The European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users, joins forces with Stichting Investor Loss Compensation (SILC), assisting Airbus shareholders recover losses resulting from Airbus’ involvement in bribery practices and other wrongful conducts. Free registration is now open at www.airbusclaim.com Largest ever penalty on global bribery practices On 31 January 2020, Airbus – the global
10 February 2023 | As EU policymakers continue their negotiations on the MiFIR review, BETTER FINANCE is increasingly alarmed that the regulation could severely hurt retail investors, by putting in place a market structure further benefitting dark Systematic Internalisers (SIs). Ignoring the previous plea from BETTER FINANCE and going against the interests of retail investors,
BETTER FINANCE is excited to announce the launch of its much-needed “Gateway to Responsible Investing”, responding to the lack of independent, transparent and clear information on how to invest in a climate-aligned and sustainable way! Besides providing educational information on matters such as ESG, impact investing and greenwashing, the gateway also provides tools for first-time
For a third year in a row, a study by BETTER FINANCE and DSW still points to considerable barriers to shareholder engagement as the Shareholder Rights Directive II fails to deliver for European cross-border shareholders, seriously hampering long-term investor engagement and sustainable corporate governance. Following the entry into force of the Shareholder Rights Directive II
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Long-term investor engagement and sustainable corporate governance hampered by antiquated, fragmented and costly processes in the hands of financial intermediaries Despite the great importance the EU attaches to corporate governance (the ‘G’ part of ‘ESG’) and to shareholder engagement, there are still considerable obstacles to the exercise of shareholder voting rights; namely the
The practice of greenwashing, or marketing a product as environmentally friendly, when in fact basic environmental standards have not been met, can take many forms including misleading labels and unsubstantiated/vague claims, meaningless catchwords, etc. with the aim of making a product or company seem greener and more socially responsible than it really is, amounting to
In response to warnings about an “advice gap” if inducements – or rather sales commissions – were to be banned, BETTER FINANCE stresses that there can be no “advice gap” if there’s no “advice”: biased advice is not really advice. The discussion in Brussels between advocates and opponents of bias-free advice (the stated objective of
The Briefing Paper by BETTER FINANCE, 2° Investing Initiative and WWF focuses on the Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance-Based Products (PRIIPs) Regulation and provides recommendations for sustainability disclosure. While a legislative review of PRIIPs is planned, we suggest an omnibus regulation that will effectively harmonise product-level disclosures. The briefing elaborates on one of the recommendations
EU Law rightly requires information provided to individual investors to be clear, i.e., “presented in a way that is likely to be understood by, the average member of the group to whom it is directed, or by whom it is likely to be received”, and as such, retail investors expect definitions and classifications of funds