On 23 March, MEPs Isabel Benjumea and Stéphanie Yon-Courtin addressed the Global Money Week webinar on “Investor Education in times of High Inflation, Financial Repression & Market Volatility” jointly organised by BETTER FINANCE and EFAMA. Please find their respective full speeches below. Excerpts: Isabel Benjumea: “Investor education is a key tool for the completion of
BETTER FINANCE wishes to stress that providing EU citizens with a really safe PEPP is critical for their future pension adequacy. However, despite BETTER FINANCE’s repeated warnings and meetings with representatives of the EU citizens at the Parliament, the ECON committee today decided to adopt a capital “protection” scam for the “basic PEPP” which is
BETTER FINANCE wishes to stress that providing EU citizens with a really safe PEPP is critical for their future pension adequacy. It is happy to see that the MEPs approved some of the improvements for pension savers it has been supporting, such as: the collective redress provision, the right for independent saver associations to subscribe
European parliamentarians have been urged not to back any draft of the revised IORP Directive requiring full funding of pension fund liabilities; ahead of a crucial vote to decide the chamber’s final negotiating position. The call comes ahead of a vote by the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), which is set to
A recent conference on the role of the asset management was held at the European Parliament. Politicians and consumer rights groups offered analysis on the added value active managed funds offer investors. Sven Giegold, a Green MEP, suggested that asset management companies have over charged investors and failed to offer investors value. The consensus of
On Wednesday, September 14, the packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) draft legislation, was rejected overwhelmingly by MEPs. PRIIPs was developed to help investors but MEPs declared that the draft legislation was “flawed and misleading”. PRIIPs will now be sent back for revision at the EU Commission. Whereas this delay is bad news
On September 23 MEPs from the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee met together with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to debate the EU’s current priorities on the financial agenda including the banking union. Up for discussion were the practical details of setting up a single bank resolution system and fund, the upcoming bank balance
The European Federation of Financial Services Users calls on the Members of the European Parliament to put an end to performance fees of investment funds being only a one-way street, benefitting only providers and to the detriment of retail investors. It is fine to link fund managers’ commissions to performance, but to be fair with
On Monday November 17, ECB President Mario Draghi met with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) active in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON). While pleased with the credit-easing measures package, planned purchase of covered bonds and asset-backed securities by the ECB as well as with the progress in terms of the emerging Banking
In November 2011, concerns over the “domination” of the European Commission expert groups by business interests led the European Parliament to freeze the budget for expert groups. In September 2012, the Parliament released the budget on the understanding that expert groups would significantly improve based on conditions set by the EP which would ensure that MEPs and the Commission would work
The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a blow to pension systems across Europe, heaping pressure on policymakers to introduce reforms to avoid a decades-long retirement crisis, according to an influential consumer group. Big increases in unemployment will shrink the tax revenues used to fund state pensions and reduce contributions to retirement saving schemes run by employers