EFAMA spoke with its own Bernard Delbecque, Senior Director of Economics & Research, for the publication of the 8th issue of the "3 Questions 2" (3Q2) series, on rethinking our pension system sustainability and adequacy.
The aim of 3Q2 is to raise awareness on specific topics of interest to our membership in a clear and concise manner.
Highlights of EFAMA's key achievements from June 2021- June 2022
This is evidenced in the second edition of EFAMA's report, "The European Asset Management Industry's Engagement in Financial Education Initiatives", released in March 2022.
The report, prefaced by Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, is divided into three parts.
A real-time consolidated tape, provided it is made available at a reasonable cost, will bring many benefits to European capital markets. A complete and consistent view of market-wide prices and trading volumes is necessary for any market, though this is especially true for the EU where trading is fragmented across a large number of trading venues. A real-time consolidated tape should cover equities and bonds, delivering data in ‘as close to real-time as technically possible’ after receipt of the data from the different trade venues.
EFAMA has been at the forefront of efforts to urge authorities to raise financial literacy levels in the general population through widespread and improved financial and investor education initiatives. We are also a long-time supporter of IOSCO's World Investor Week and organise a yearly event on investor education.
The old-age dependency ratio in the EU continues to increase; Eurostat’s recent figures project that by 2050, there will be fewer than 2 working-age adults for each person aged 65 or older, versus just under 3 today.
Investor education initiatives are essential to improve financial literacy and empower citizens to make sound decisions when managing their savings. If citizens do not have the basic knowledge to understand financial concepts such as risk diversification, compound interest and real rate of return, they won’t know where to start or what to ask should they wish to invest their savings. A lack of sufficient financial literacy in most European countries helps explain why the vast majority of households don’t directly invest any of their savings in the capital markets.
EFAMA has released its latest Market Insights report titled “Perspective on the costs of UCITS”. The full report breaks down the costs of UCITS, focusing on the fees charged for the different services provided along the investment fund value chain and distinguishing between the product cost for which fund managers are directly responsible, and the
Equity UCITS delivered a total net return of 108% in real terms in 2010-2019, whereas bank deposits lost 10% in net value
By Vincent Ingham
Director of Regulatory Policy, EFAMA.
