The European Federation of investors and Financial Services Users fully supports the clear stated objectives of the European Union’s very welcome “Retail Investor Strategy”. Before the European Commission’s proposal is put forth, BETTER FINANCE reminds of the key necessities for a Capital Markets Union that shall “work for the people”. ENSURE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
BETTER FINANCE published a letter accompanying its response to the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) on its draft EU Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). In light of the proposals put forward by EFRAG, BETTER FINANCE would like to draw attention to the overarching themes that will ensure investors receive understandable, comparable, and reliable information which
Available data and evidence show significant increases in the trading and investing activity of EU households, sparked by a new wave of young, previously inactive, non-professional investors. Many EU retail investors increased their exposure to listed equities and started to invest via execution-only services (brokerage accounts). Besides flattening the illiquidity curve during the period of
Retail trading must be simple, transparent, cost-efficient, and done in the best possible conditions for individual, non-professional (“retail”) investors. To achieve this, BETTER FINANCE puts forward a series of recommendations in relation to best execution of retail orders and payments for order flows (PFOF or, more adequately PFROF: Payment for retail order flow). Payments for
Available data and evidence show significant increases in the trading and investing activity of EU households, sparked by a new wave of young, previously inactive, non-professional investors. Many EU retail investors increased their exposure to listed equities and started to invest via execution-only services (brokerage accounts). Besides flattening the illiquidity curve during the period of
It is very welcome that the Commission prepares both a Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy for July 2021, and an unprecedented, horizontal Retail Investment Strategy for early 2022. This briefing focuses on the retail investment aspects of the Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy and on the sustainability aspects of the Retail Investment Strategy. It does not aim
BETTER FINANCE welcomes the Delegated act obligations for certain large undertakings to publish non-financial information. The rules set out in the delegated act clarify and allow for the translation of the technical screening criteria of the Climate Delegated Act (and the future Environmental Delegated Act) into quantitative economic performance indicators that will need to be
Regulations on Markets in Crypto Assets and the EU Pilot Regime for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based market infrastructures BETTER FINANCE welcomes the initiatives and efforts of EU public authorities to accommodate emerging technologies in financial services whilst maintaining a safe and stable environment for consumers and financial services users to benefit from our single
With the termination of the intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in 2020 – which received significant criticism for overlapping with the EU single market rules – the EC launched an initiative to improve the investor protection and facilitation framework at EU level. This initiative was reiterated in the new Capital Markets Union (CMU) Action Plan
While the aim of the EU Ecolabel should be to guide retail investors towards truly sustainable financial products, and at the same time avoid the greenwashing of unsustainable investments, the current proposal creates the exact opposite scenario for the label. It is labeling unsustainable investments as “green” and not sufficiently promoting targeted and genuine sustainable