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One of the main objectives of the European Commission’s “EU Strategy for Retail Investors” is to “ensure bias-free advice” for individual investors. It is meeting with considerable resistance from many players of the financial industry, as evidenced by a recent report and the ongoing “smoke and mirrors” campaign to counter the EC’s efforts. It befits BETTER FINANCE then, through its own independent research, to clearly demonstrate how the commission-based distribution model is damaging net returns for individual investors.
The reports have been discreetly circulated to public authorities as part of a large lobbying campaign by several industry associations in the four largest EU economies, to pre-empt EU policymakers from putting a proposal to ensure bias-free advice on the table. Surprise, surprise, no organisations representing independent advisors or other anti-kickback investment firms were included or even surveyed.