On Tuesday 30 May, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (‘ECON’) discussed the proposed ‘Listing Act’ (see EUROPE 13145/21) with a panel of experts and industry players.
During this exchange of views, Jella Benner-Heinacher, President of the European Federation of Investors and Users of Financial Services (Better Finance), stressed the high level of ambition that the European Parliament should maintain in its work on this legislative proposal.
“When you cut standards, you don’t attract the right companies. Sometimes they are of poor quality and we have also witnessed fraud. Regulation is not a burden, it’s a problem. This attracts better companies and, in the long run, pays off”, stressed the president of Better Finance.
Ms Benner-Heinacher also took the opportunity to emphasise the need to work, within the framework of the legislative proposal, on the issue of prospectuses, which must include the detailed information that a company must produce in order to be able to issue securities to the general public.
For Better Finance, the emphasis should be on the readability of prospectuses, which should include certain elements such as “the company’s business model, name, objectives, share classes and commercial approach”.
For others, such as the dossier’s rapporteur, Alfred Sant (S&D, Maltese), the work on the prospectus should also lead to the democratisation of the use of these documents, given that a large majority of those who use them are professionals in the sector.
“Who reads these prospectuses? According to the European Commission, only 5% are small investors, which is unbalanced”, he said.
Finally, for some experts present at the European Parliament Committee, particular attention should also be paid to the issue of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and to the importance that brokerage firms give to small and medium-sized enterprises in the work they carry out on behalf of these SMEs. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)