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Publications

The Proposed Retail Investment Strategy Shows Potential for Investor Protection Progress, but Fails to Meet its Own Key Targets

BETTER FINANCE, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users, welcomed the European Commission’s launch of a Retail Investor Strategy in September 2020, as a once in a lifetime ...
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/ Press Releases, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Life Insurance & Pensions, Packaged Investment Products, Product governance & disclosures, Securities Markets & Trading, Shareholder Rights & Corporate Governance, Supervision & Redress

CMU Assessment Report 2019-2022 | Building a Capital Markets Union “That Works for People”

BETTER FINANCE released its updated report on the progress of the European Capital Markets Union (CMU), and the results are discouraging. The report analyses the first five key performance indicators ...
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/ Research papers, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU)

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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/ Press Releases, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Securities Markets & Trading, Shareholder Rights & Corporate Governance

Withholding taxes on dividends in the European Union: An uphill battle for individual shareholders

A recent survey conducted by BETTER FINANCE and DSW among 3,000 investors across the EU found that withholding tax (WHT) refund procedures are cumbersome and costly, making it difficult or ...
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/ Research papers, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Other, Securities Markets & Trading, Shareholder Rights & Corporate Governance, Supervision & Redress

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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/ Press Releases, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Securities Markets & Trading

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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/ Consultations, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Product governance & disclosures, Securities Markets & Trading, Shareholder Rights & Corporate Governance

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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/ Press Releases, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Shareholder Rights & Corporate Governance

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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/ Research papers, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Securities Markets & Trading, Shareholder Rights & Corporate Governance

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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/ Press Releases, Capital Markets (equity & bonds), Capital Markets Union (CMU), Securities Markets & Trading