Andreas Stepnitzka, EFAMA Deputy Director, Regulatory Policy, comments:
Andreas Stepnitzka, EFAMA Deputy Director, Regulatory Policy, comments:
EFAMA has today published its latest monthly Investment Fund Industry Fact Sheet, which provides net sales data on UCITS, and AIFs sold in August 2021, at European level and by country of fund domiciliation.
The Commission aims to present a legislative proposal to address the tax-induced debt-equity bias, also to support the action plan for the Capital Markets Union and to encourage companies to finance their investment through equity contributions rather than through debt financing.
“Oliver Wyman’s study ‘Caught on Tape’ provides a perplexing take on Consolidated Tape for Europe. Sure enough, it starts with accurate observations: the high number of trading venues in Europe, the resultant fragmented liquidity, unseen liquidity due to the lack of a consolidated tape, and the fact that leading markets like the US and Canada today benefit from a real time consolidated tape.
The current lack of quality pre- and post-trade data and the fragmentation of data sources remain an obstacle to the completion of the Capital Markets Union. The benefits of a real-time Consolidated Tape are wide-ranging: from market surveillance for supervisors, to best execution and an improved view on trading opportunities for retail investors, to portfolio management and pre- and post-trade analysis for fund managers to name a few.
EFAMA has been at the forefront of efforts to urge authorities to raise financial literacy levels in the general population through widespread and improved financial and investor education initiatives. We are also a long-time supporter of IOSCO's World Investor Week and organise a yearly event on investor education.
The old-age dependency ratio in the EU continues to increase; Eurostat’s recent figures project that by 2050, there will be fewer than 2 working-age adults for each person aged 65 or older, versus just under 3 today.
Investor education initiatives are essential to improve financial literacy and empower citizens to make sound decisions when managing their savings. If citizens do not have the basic knowledge to understand financial concepts such as risk diversification, compound interest and real rate of return, they won’t know where to start or what to ask should they wish to invest their savings. A lack of sufficient financial literacy in most European countries helps explain why the vast majority of households don’t directly invest any of their savings in the capital markets.
The Commission aims to present a legislative proposal to address the tax-induced debt-equity bias, also to support the action plan for the Capital Markets Union and to encourage companies to finance their investment through equity contributions rather than through debt financing.
EFAMA provided high-level comments to the Commission’s consultation on the potential review of the Directive on Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services.
We agree with the Commission’s interpretation that the Directive is seen as a “safety net” for financial services not already subject to product-specific legislation. Fund and asset managers are already subject to various, more stringent and detailed sectoral legislations, such as (but not limited to) UCITS, AIFMD and MiFID as well as the (more recent) Cross-Border Fund Distribution Directives.
The asset management industry recognises the much-needed adoption of mandatory European sustainability reporting standards under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) proposal. Insufficient availability of meaningful, comparable, reliable, and public Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data is a key impediment to realising the full potential of the EU's sustainable finance regulatory framework. Financial market participants' sustainable investments need to be driven by real, verifiable and reported ESG metrics of company's activities and financial risks.
Nine associations (AFME, AIMA, EAPB, EBF, EFAMA, FIA, ICI, ISDA, SIFMA AMG) welcome the Commission's decision to grant a time-limited equivalence decision in respect of UK CCPs. However, when this time-limited equivalence decision expires on 30 June 2022, there remains a significant risk of disruption to clearing for EU firms and to their access to global markets.
Given the increasingly important role ESG ratings and data products providers play in investment processes, EFAMA welcomes the increased attention of regulators to this issue. In light of the growing regulatory scrutiny on the ESG characteristics of potential investments, improving the usability and reliability of the ESG ratings and data products is a key priority for the European asset management industry.
The European Commission recently adopted amendments to the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation and the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) Directive. However, in contrast to earlier plans, the adoption of the revised Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) amending Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 has been postponed.
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