16 Amendments of Sven GIEGOLD related to 2017/2066(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 a (new)
Citation 17 a (new)
– having regards to the Special Eurobarometer 446 of July 2016 on Financial Products and Services,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 b (new)
Citation 17 b (new)
– having regard to the UK Financial Conduct Authority's Asset Management Market Study of June 2017,
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 c (new)
Citation 17 c (new)
– having regard to Better Finance's report "Pension Savings: The Real Return", 2016
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the Special Eurobarometer 446 concludes that, when it comes to financial products or services, Europeans are still purchasing mostly in their own country and often do not even express a need or desire to have access to these services abroad, although some actual barriers are also preventing them from doing so. Even within their own Member State, only a small proportion seeks out more attractive offers and changes their providers. The resulting lack of (cross-border) competition may prevent consumers and small investors from getting the best deal in the financial products and services they purchase;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. calls on the Commission to be more ambitious in the area of cross border retail investments under the CMU by tackling not just the easier issues but also the most important barriers to this market which include language, concerns about fraud or crime, uncertainty about the tax implications, differences in securities and corporate law, unknown redress and insolvency proceedings and lack of confidence in consumer protection frameworks, including the coverage of insurance guarantee and investor compensation schemes, in other Member States;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Commission Action Plan on consumer financial services as a means of addressing some of the challenges raised by Parliament in its report on the Green Paper on retail financial services, with the aim of striving towards a genuine technology-enabled single market for retail financial services, while protecting consumers, lowering prices and fighting against tax fraud, tax evasion and tax avoidance; deplores the continued high levels and opacity of fees and commissions in relation to private pensions, investment funds and other retail products that significantly reduce the real returns to retail investors;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Believes that the Commission should play a more proactive role in using the capital markets union, while closely involving Parliament as part of the implementation of the Paris agreement to support the growing sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) market by promoting sustainable investments, through the provision of effective and standardised Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information by listed companies and financial intermediates and the adequate reflection of such criteria in investment management systems and disclosure standards; urges, the Commission, furthermore, to promote environmental, social and governance (ESG) ‘rating services’ and a consistent framework for the green bonds market, building on the relevant Commission study and the work of the G20 study group on green finance;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes that retail consumers use a limited range of retail financial products - current and savings accounts, credit cards, Life/health/car insurance and mortgage or personal loans; Recommends that action should be focused on improving consumer protection, transparency and competition in the small number of products necessary to inclusion in modern economic life; strongly recommends that, in order to improve confidence in cross border products, the Commission to look into the possibility of creating a harmonised legal framework, which could take the form of a separate EU opt-in regime, for standardised default options for the most commonly used EU financial products along the lines of the Basic Bank Account and PEPP model;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Urges the Commission to set up promptly a well-organised and easy-to-use EU comparison portal covering the European retail financial markets in its entirety; emphasises that comparison tools must be accurate and of relevance to consumers and must focus not only on the prices of products but also on their quality, taking into consideration other criteria such as availability of branch networks, face to face contacts and sustainability of business practices and bearing in mind that only similar products can be compared;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Asks the Commission to assess carefully whether national rules and practices are motivated by consumer protection concerns and whether there is evidence of undertakings engaging in regulatory arbitrage by choosing to establish activities in jurisdictions with weaker consumer protection frameworks; underlines that the dismantling of national barriers should not be to the detriment of consumer protection;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls on the Commission to consider omnibus legislation to move from the current silo-based patchwork for MiFID, IDD, AIFMD etc. towards the completion of a solid consistent consumer transparency framework , removing unnecessary complexity for financial service providers, including supervisory convergence between member states; calls on the Commission to promote an extended use in sectoral legislation of the ESAs' consumer protection mandate and take this into account in the framework of the upcoming review of the funding and governance of the ESAs; calls on the Commission to mandate the ESAs to lead the work on convergence of the conduct- of-business supervision practices between Member States;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12b. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to prepare a campaign to raise awareness of FIN-NET a network that helps consumers enforce their rights, without having to go to court, by finding a competent alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body; believes that FIN-NET should further improve its coverage, clarify its role and improve its website; Urges the Commission to consider amending the Alternative Dispute Resolution Directive (2013/11/EU) to make participation in out-of-court redress mandatory;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 c (new)
Paragraph 12 c (new)
12c. Recommends the carrying out of "mystery shopping" exercises at EU level to assess and report publicly on barriers to cross-border access, quality of service, compliance with EU law and monitor developments in products and services;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 d (new)
Paragraph 12 d (new)
12d. Is concerned that much of the paperwork produced in response to EU legislation from providers of retail financial products and services is not in fact strictly required in law and is of little or no practical benefit to consumers while imposing a burden that can result in unnecessarily higher costs to those consumers; calls on the Commission to review such documentation with the aim of streamlining it without sacrificing consumer protection benefits;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Recalls, in the context of the increased use of customer data or big data by financial institutions, the provisions of the GDPR, which grant the data subject the right to obtain an explanation of a decision reached by automated processing and to challenge this decision; stresses the need to guarantee that incorrect data can be changed and that only verifiable and relevant data are used; calls on all stakeholders to increase efforts to guarantee the enforcement of these rights; is of the opinion that consent given to the use of personal data needs to be dynamic and that data subjects must be able to alter and adapt their consent;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Notes that the increased use of customer data or big data by financial institutions may lead to benefits to consumers, such as the development of more tailored, segmented and cheaper offers based on more efficient allocation of risk and capital; is concerned, on the other hand, about the development of dynamic pricing and its potential to lead to worse outcomes for consumers with respect to comparability of offers and hence effective competition and risk pooling and mutualisation in the credit and insurance sector;