News

27 May 2016 - In its letters to Mylan N.V. of 26 February 2016 and 10 March 2016 the Dutch Investors' Association (Vereniging van Effectenbezitters or VEB) and the European Investors Association asked for Mylan’s reasons for not submitting the contemplated acquisition of Meda AB to the approval of its shareholders. As expressed before, these questions were solely aimed at safeguarding the interest...
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26 May 2016 - SMEs and mid-caps that have outgrown bankfinancing often face significant regulatory obstacles when making the transition to market financing, an issue the EU aims to tackle in the framework of the so-called Capital Markets Union-initiative. European Investors supports such efforts as it may foster a diversification of companies available to invest in for retail investors. However, i...
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13 May 2016 - Investment funds that charge high costs but make little effort to beat the benchmark. In the Netherlands, presumably 8% of all managed equity funds are index huggers, the Dutch financial markets authority concludes on the basis of its exploratory research. And the Dutch regulator is not the first one to draw such conclusions. The costs charged by Dutch fund managers are not always i...
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15 April 2016 - Last week the European Commission published the first Delegated Directive under MiFID II, dealing amongst others with the use of dealing commissions to pay for research. At the moment, research provided by brokers to investment firms is not paid for directly. Such research is paid for through transaction fees. Such research will now be considered an inducement. Under MiFIDII, firm...
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31 March 2016 - On 28 January 2016, ESMA published its draft guidelines on the Market Abuse Regulation. These guidelines deal with (i) the requirements for persons receiving market soundings and (ii) the legitimate interests of issuers to delay disclosure of inside information and situations in which delay of disclosure is likely to mislead the public. Under the Market Abuse Regulation that will...
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17 March 2016 - The Dutch Investors’ Association VEB – one of the founding members of European Investors – has reached a settlement with Ageas, the legal successor to Fortis, on providing compensation to investors who suffered losses in 2007 and 2008. More than €1.2 billion in total is available to cover the damage incurred by Fortis investors. Never before in Europe have investors received such ...
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14 March 2016 - Today the HM Treasury of the UK and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a report that sets out the findings of the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR). The report contains 28 recommendations aimed at tackling barriers for consumers accessing advice. The recommendations deal with the following areas in relation to financial advice: i) affordability; 2) accessibility; ...
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