The Retail Investment Strategy (RIS) compromise currently on the table for a European Parliament vote blatantly disregards the interests of retail investors and the establishment of a competitive Capital Markets Union (CMU). Should Ms Yon-Courtin's proposed compromise be approved by the ECON committee on 20th March and subsequently put to a plenary vote one month later, it would signify a capitulation to the interests and pressures of the incumbent financial industry. This decision would neglect the financial well-being of households across Europe and would push the Capital Markets Union further out of reach.
BETTER FINANCE, BEUC and Finance Watch are deeply concerned to learn that the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee plans to vote on 20 March on a series of amendments that will completely wipe out the substance of the European Commission's proposal for a Retail Investment Strategy.
Our organisations, representing the interests of European citizens as consumers, individual investors and savers, have long criticised the lack of advice on, and promotion of, simple, cost-efficient capital market investment products such as ETFs, listed equities and bonds to EU citizens. We have highlighted the opacity, complexity, market fragmentation and conflicts of interest plaguing the dominant distribution system for retail investment products. These issues largely stem from the payment of sales commissions ('inducements') from product manufacturers to retail distributors, even for non-advised sales (“execution-only”). [...]
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