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User:Arnaudhoudmont/sandbox/BETTER FINANCE

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Better Finance, (Long-form: The European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users), is a public interest non-governmental organisation established with the stated intent of advocating on behalf of and defending the interests of European citizens as financial services users at the European level to policymakers and the public, in order to promote and protect individual investors, savers and other financial service users.[1] [2]

BETTER FINANCE acts as an independent financial expertise, research, and advocacy centre, to the benefit of European financial services users. Since the BETTER FINANCE constituency includes individual and small shareholders, fund and retail investors, savers, pension fund participants, life insurance policyholders, borrowers, and other stakeholders who are independent of the financial industry[3], it claims to represent all European citizens. BETTER FINANCE activities are supported and co-financed by the European Union since 2012.[4]

Background

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BETTER FINANCE was created in 2009 in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. BETTER FINANCE’s predecessor, Euroshareholders, was created in 1992 and gathered about 30 individual shareholder organisations in Europe. Euroshareholders joined BETTER FINANCE in 2012 to bring together and represent the interests of all financial users at European level.

BETTER FINANCE seeks to directly benefit European end-users of financial services (and non-industry stakeholders) as its members are themselves non-profit European financial services user organisations (and other stakeholders independent from the financial industry). They act as representatives of financial services users in their respective EU Member States, working to ensure proper governance, independence and prevention of conflicts of interests.

BETTER FINANCE claims to represent about 4 million financial services users in more than 35 countries, including most European Member States.

Activities

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BETTER FINANCE seeks to balance the influence of financial institutions[5] in the EU financial policy-making process[6], by:

  • engaging in EU financial policy advisory groups and processes (FSUG[7], EBA[8], EIOPA[9], ESMA[10], EFRAG[11], etc.);
  • organising campaigns to provide relevant information and better protection for end-users;
  • promoting market integrity and transparency for individual investors and non-industry stakeholders;
  • and pushing for better governance of financial supervision for all European citizens. 

BETTER FINANCE's main areas of activity include Sustainable Finance[12], Financial Education, Life Insurance, Pensions, Packaged Investments, Shareholders Rights, Corporate Governance and Audit & Financial Reporting. BETTER FINANCE monitors the following EU files with regards to financial regulation: Shareholders Rights Directive, Capital Markets Union, IORPs, MiFID, PRIIPs, IMD, FTT, ELTIFs, UCITS, Solvency, PEPP, ESG, Ecolabel

In 2017 BETTER FINANCE's campaign[13] against the practice of Closet Indexing - falsely active index tracking funds - enjoyed significant media attention.[14]

Stated Priorities[15]

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  1. Ensure better access to simple and transparent products
  2. Make the European capital markets more attractive for EU citizens as savers and investors[16]
  3. Improve the competitiveness of European capital markets for SMEs
  4. Ensure better access to comparable, fair, clear and not misleading information[17]
  5. Improve long-term and sustainable value creation[18]
  6. Ensure fair and equal access to redress
  7. Promote investor education as key to the success of a real CMU
  8. Ensure the consistency of all EU financial user protection rules
  9. Sustain the EU support to the involvement of financial services users in EU policy making
  10. Increase the efficiency of EU institutions’ procedures

Members

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BETTER FINANCE is the European federation of individual investor and other financial users’ protection associations[19], comprising:

  • 38 EU and international organisations;
  • 26 countries, including Russia, Turkey, Lebanon and Cameroon;
  • Representing over 4 million financial services users;

References

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  1. ^ https://betterfinance.eu/organisation/about-us/
  2. ^ "Transparency Register - European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2020-02-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "De Europese financiële regels tien jaar na de crisis: 'De macht van de lobby blijft een groot probleem'". Site-Trends-NL. 2019-05-08. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  4. ^ "Increasing consumer involvement in financial service policy-making". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  5. ^ "European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (Better Finance) | LobbyFacts Database". lobbyfacts.eu. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  6. ^ "Regulation (EU) 2017/826 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2017 on establishing a Union programme to support specific activities enhancing the involvement of consumers and other financial services end-users in Union policy-making in the area of financial services for the period of 2017-2020". EUR Lex.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ "Financial Services User Group (FSUG)". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  8. ^ "Banking Stakeholder Group". European Banking Authority. 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  9. ^ "EIOPA Stakeholder Groups". European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "GOVERNANCE". www.esma.europa.eu. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  11. ^ "EFRAG Board - EFRAG". www.efrag.org. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  12. ^ "A Guide To EU Financial Politics and Policy Development: Can Sustainable Value for Money be Achieved?". eufin.cfainstitute.libsynpro.com. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  13. ^ "Check Your Fund – A Better Finance Website". Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  14. ^ ""Asset managers named in list of potential closet trackers" by Gina Miller | Financial Times". www.ft.com. 12 February 2017. Retrieved 2020-02-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ "Better Finance Key Priorities". betterfinance.eu. Retrieved 2020-02-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ "Priciest active investment funds perform worst, study finds | Financial Times". www.ft.com. 20 June 2019. Retrieved 2020-02-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ "Big equity funds accused of breaching EU disclosure rules | Financial Times". www.ft.com. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 2020-02-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ OECD (2018-12-03). OECD Pensions Outlook 2018. OECD Publishing. pp. 86, 100. ISBN 978-92-64-30541-0.
  19. ^ "BetterFinance Member Organisations". betterfinance.eu. Retrieved 2020-02-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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