BETTTER FINANCE wishes to congratulate ESMA for quickly making use of its brand new (03/01/2018) product intervention powers granted by MiFID II to ban or restrict the distribution of toxic investment products to retail clients. As asked many times in the past by BETTER FINANCE , the ESAs are now eventually empowered with broader product
Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, was invited to address the European Commission’s (EC) ‘Public Hearing on a simpler Withholding Tax procedure for Europe’. The EC just released a Code of Conduct on withholding tax aimed at improving the refund and/or relief at source of current withholding taxes (WHT) charged by Member States within
Whereas BETTER FINANCE welcomes the report of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Sustainable Finance as a step in the right direction to promote a cleaner and fairer economy, it is also disappointed in the fact that the report essentially fails to address information and governance issues for sustainable finance products.
As part of the Paris agreement, the EU has taken ambitious steps for the transition to a sustainable European economy. BETTER FINANCE supports the integration of sustainability into the mandate of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) in order to put pressure on the financial sector to address these issues. To this end, institutional investors and
BF agrees that divergence in the supervision and approval of internal models for Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR) leads to inconsistencies and can create both an uneven level playing field for market participants, and an inconsistent protection of EU citizens as insured persons. Actually, BETTER FINANCE believes that the use of “internal models” is an advantage
BETTER FINANCE welcomes this opportunity to comment on the relocation of the European Banking Authority (EBA). Following the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union by 30th March 2019, the General Affairs Council selected Paris as the new seat for the EBA. Currently, the EBA is almost entirely focused on regulatory issues, not on
On 22 November, BETTER FINANCE, the European Investment Bank and the Federation of European Securities Exchanges teamed up for the International Conference on the ‘Equity Financing of the EU Economy’. A full room was addressed by prominent speakers representing the European Parliament and Commission, Permanent Representations to the EU, European Supervisory Authorities and consumer and
Guillaume Prache, Managing director of BETTER FINANCE, was asked by EIOPA to contribute to the discussion on the request for the European Supervisory Authorities to report on the cost and past performance of the main categories of retail investment, insurance and pension products. He was the rapporteur of the recently adopted OPSG (EIOPA Occupational Pensions
In order to effectively contribute to the strengthening of the Capital Markets Union, BETTER FINANCE believes that sustainable investment products require binding standards ensuring the trust of EU citizens in sustainable retail investment products and positive returns.
BETTER FINANCE agrees with EBA’s suggestion to investigate these different regulatory treatments applied to FinTech firms who are offering similar financial services in Europe. It would in fact be interesting to investigate the approaches of the monitoring of the FinTech sector in order to ensure that risks are appropriately identified and addressed.