On Tuesday 21 October, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union will resume inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogue’) on the ‘retail investment’ legislative package. It is possible to make progress on the rules for transparency and clarity of the investment journey for a retail client (‘investor’s journey’), from initial information to post-sale monitoring.
In addition, progress is still awaited on more politically sensitive points, namely, on the one hand, the rules imposing on manufacturers the obligation to guarantee that their investment products offer retail clients a fair cost/benefit ratio (‘value for money’) and, on the other hand, the system of retrocessions (‘inducements’) paid by manufacturers to distributors or intermediaries, with the risks of conflicts of interest that these practices can engender.
On 23 September, the negotiators had provisionally agreed on the framework for supervising financial service providers, particularly with regard to granting, monitoring and withdrawing authorisations, as well as on the rules for access to the European market for third country players (see EUROPE 13716/20). Other agreements were reached last July (see EUROPE 13678/32). (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)