Henrike Hahn, Bavarian member of the European Parliament (The Greens/EFA), deputy member of the Economic and Monetary Committee and deputy speaker of the German delegation of the Greens, comments on the proposal from the European Commission on the retail investment strategy:

“The Commission proposal contains some good and important elements that can contribute to consumer protection in European capital markets. The introduction of benchmarks on the price-performance the costs and performance of financial products or, for example, mandatory warnings when buying risky products are a step in the right direction to strengthen retail investor protection and confidence in the financial markets.

Unfortunately, the Commission has failed on the key element of the reform and on Commissioner McGuinness' original priority - the ban on inducements. Unfortunately, contrary to the Commission's impact assessment and the available economic evidence, an inducement ban was slashed from the final proposals due to pressure from the financial sector.

This will come at the expense of retail investors, who will continue to invest at inflated costs in products that may not meet their needs. We Greens will therefore continue to fight for a complete inducement ban in the forthcoming negotiations in Parliament in order to strengthen confidence in the financial markets and to promote the European capital markets union.”

 

I would be happy to answer any further questions.