Withholding Tax on Cross-Border Dividends in the EU continues to be a nightmare for investors

Many investors commonly use the strategy of investing in dividend stocks. Yet, investors holding foreign shares often have to pay additional withholding tax on dividends in the respective country. A ...
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Withholding taxes on dividends in the European Union: An uphill battle for individual shareholders

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 ...
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BETTER FINANCE raises serious concerns over the current “trialogues” on EU capital market structure and their impact on the retail investment community

  • BETTER FINANCE calls for restricting “dark” capital market venues to REAL Large-in-scale (LIS) trades, i.e., of more than €100k each, to really prevent them from dealing with “retail” orders.
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Robo-advice 2022 Report | Breaking Barriers of Traditional Advice

BETTER FINANCE continued its research series into Robo-advice with this seventh annual edition (2022), mapping a sample of platforms that provide online Robo-advisory investing services, by analysing their (automated) advice ...
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BETTER FINANCE Answer to the EC open feedback on the review of the Listing Act

BETTER FINANCE response to the European Commission's request for feedback on the review of the Listing Act - making public capital markets more attractive for EU companies and facilitating access ...
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BETTER FINANCE calls on EU legislators to stop helping the expansion of large (mostly non-EU) dark traders and to protect retail investors instead

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 ...
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Hampered by fragmented and costly intermediated processes, less than half of European individual shareholders were able to exercise their voting rights at AGMs in 2022

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 ...
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Barriers to shareholder engagement | SRD II  Revisited (AGM season 2022)

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 ...
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EU Council set to backtrack on retail investor protection and CMU, contrary to SEC’s US capital markets reforms

On Wednesday 14 December, the United Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed Regulation Best Execution, seeking to establish a best execution regulatory framework mandating that securities brokers and dealers execute ...
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Council of the EU is the Last Hurdle to Tackling Conflicts of Interests in Retail Investment Services

17 November 2022 – The struggle against conflicts of interests and to deliver an adequate, high level of “retail” investor protection now hinges on the positions of representatives of the ...
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