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

PRESS RELEASE
BETTER FINANCE

Brussels, 24 May 2023

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 opportunity to create a capital markets Union that works for people. Nevertheless, the legislative proposal, despite incorporating certain positive advancements, falls short of fulfilling several of its own key objectives in enabling EU individual investors to benefit from:

  • “bias-free advice”,
  • “coherent rules across legal instruments”,
  • “transparent, comparable and understandable product information”,
  • and “open markets with a variety of competitive and cost-efficient financial services”.