Updated: July 16, 2012 (Initial publication: July 12, 2012)

Breaking news

On July 3, 2012, the European Commission published a draft of a set of texts for protect consumers of financial services.

http://www.thejournalofregulation.com/spip.php?article1533

The European Commission, following the example of the Obama administration understands the regulation of financial markets through the protection of consumers of financial instruments. It is on this basis that should be analyzing the proposed "package" which the Commission presented the draft on July 3, 2012. The Commission manifests its particular concern for investment details and information of investors. Based on the observation that individuals do not to use the markets only in an intermediated way, the project aims the " organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières " - OPVCM (undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities ). Finally, noting that for the consumers, the insurance product and the product purely financial, is similar the Commission proposes to revise the regulation of the sale of insurance products and insurance mediation.

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In the U.S., the Dodd-Frank is characterized in that it emphasizes the protection of investors, defined as the consumer of financial products and services, the protection taking the form of a better information of the consumer . We can estimate that this is a liberal and consumerist form of financial regulation.

European Commission adopts the same vision in the project which includes a proposal for a regulation on the keys information documents on retail investment products, a proposal of revision of the directive on insurance mediation and a proposal whose purpose was the protection of purchasers of shares of investment funds.

That is why, its regulation draft aimed at informing consumers, liberal form of protection. For this, the idea of the Commission is imposing a "document d’informations clés"- DIC (Key Information Document), every designer of investment products have to produce such a document for any product, so that the consumer understands the risks he takes. Each "document d’informations clés"- DIC (Key Information Document) and clearly indicates the characteristics of the product, its costs and risks.

The idea is also not only to protect the consumer as such, but enough to standardize the "document d’informations clés"- DIC (Key Information Document) that it can compare various financial products offered to him and promoted competition. Again, we measure the influence Anglo-North American and the idea that competition will clean up the financial market itself.

The second facet of the package proposed by the European Commission for insurance mediation. It is now most often investment, including through life insurance, whose status is in fact close to the requirement and the Commission finds that the consumer is misinformed.

To address this, the remedy is not the same, because the game is not the same. Indeed, the game in the financial markets, previously referred, is risks taking, which must remain on the head of the investor (which is why the text is liberal) and it takes but just to provide information on the risks it chooses to take.Here, the insurance is intended to cover themselves against the risks.

That is why the revision of the Directive which urges the European Commission seeks to uniform sales of insurance products conditions, so that consumers are also protected, the text seeking also to fight against conflict of interest within the structures of intermediation.

Finally, concerning the investment funds that are carried in private individual investors, mainly the " organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières " - OPVCM (undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities ), the Commission is considering a revision of the directive that governs them. For the credibility of these funds remains, the revisions are intended to increase the obligations and liability of the depositary.

Through this latest proposal, be compared with the rules adopted by Parliament on the rating agencies which greatly increases their liability through a presumption of failure, as it becomes the responsibility of an increasingly effective way of regulating agents on globalized financial markets.

 

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