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Better Finance

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Better Finance

BETTER FINANCE: The EU-level NGO defending the interests of EU citizens as financial services users

BETTER FINANCE (The European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users) is a non-governmental international organisation advocating at EU level for the interests of all European citizens as financial services users. We conduct research and promote financial literacy, inform on Investments, Savings and Personal Finances. We act as an independent financial expertise center and towards pol

icy-makers and stakeholders (including end-users, consumers, retail investors, and other actors who are independent from the financial industry). Similarly to the EU itself, our membership has constantly grown since our creation in 2009. Today we count over 40 independent and respected national and international member and affiliate organisations from most EU Member States and beyond. Since the creation of our organisation in 2009 our main objective has been to restore the confidence individual investors and other users of financial services in Capital Markets. In order to do so, we are focusing on four key priorities:
• Better protection of users of financial services including fair and clearly comparable information, unbiased and competent advice, elimination of tax discrimination against individual savers and investors and consistent rules for financial consumer protection.
• More transparency, liquidity, integrity and efficiency of capital markets in order to primarily serve the investors’ and issuers’ interests, before those of the financial institutions.
• More responsible and competitive lending with banks returning to their core business of collecting deposits and lending to the real economy, with real competition, and without using money from central banks, depositors and taxpayers to fund high margin but risky investment and trading activities.
• Better governance of financial supervision by the European Authorities in order to put an end to the imbalance of the representation of interests between players from the financial industry and the users of financial services and other stakeholders independent from the finance industry.

03/06/2026

Retail investors across Europe pay tax on nominal returns, even when inflation has wiped out any real gain. Cross-border investment adds another layer. Withholding tax claims remain complex, costly and often simply abandoned.

Tax design shapes whether long-term saving makes financial sense at all.

On 18 June in Reykjavík, a high-level panel will examine these issues together with:
✅Daði Már Kristófersson - Iceland’s Minister of Finance,
✅Vilhjálmur Bjarnason, Economist, Associate Professor Emeritus University of Iceland, Former Member of the Icelandic Parliament
✅Nicolas Pinaud, Deputy Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, OECD
✅Magnús Harðarson, CEO Nasdaq, Iceland

The discussion will cover taxation across jurisdictions, double taxation barriers, and the role of fiscal policy in building fair, functional capital markets.

What needs to change? Register to follow the discussion online or on-site 👉 https://betterfinance.eu/event/taxation-inflation-investments-eu-conference/

02/06/2026

The Omnibus package promises simpler rules, less paperwork, and fewer disclosures.

But how will these serve the investors?

Two new Commission proposals on the revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the expanded Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard (VSME) introduce additional exemptions, phase-ins and methodological flexibilities that go beyond what EFRAG itself recommended. Taken individually, each measure looks reasonable. Taken together, they risk creating information gaps that leave retail investors with less sustainability data to act on.

Simplification should not come at the price of transparency.

BETTER FINANCE has responded to the Commission’s consultations on ESRS and VSME, raising concerns about asset management exemptions, a value-chain cap that excludes climate-transition data, and GHG reporting boundaries flexible enough to produce materially different results for identical activities.

What does this mean for the sustainability information investors actually rely on?

Read our response on ESRS 👉https://betterfinance.eu/publication/consultation-commission-revised-esrs/
Read our response on VSME 👉https://betterfinance.eu/publication/consultation-commission-revised-vsme/

$Is your neobroker app really free to use?Neobrokers offer zero-commission trading, fractional shares and a "passive inco...$

02/06/2026

Is your neobroker app really free to use?

Neobrokers offer zero-commission trading, fractional shares and a "passive income" from securities lending. The offer looks compelling, but in financial markets, costs do not disappear, they shift.

Trading for free does not mean investing for free. When signing up to neobroker platforms, most retail investors do not know what they are giving up when opting into features such as ex*****on spreads, order routing, and securities lending arrangements.

This lack of transparency creates a new kind of imbalance for retail investors.
BETTER FINANCE examines the hidden architecture of neobroker platforms, exploring the question: are you earning passive income, or quietly accepting passive risk that was never clearly priced in?

Read the full analysis 👉 https://betterfinance.substack.com/p/passive-income-or-passive-risk-the

27/05/2026

Cross-border investing in Europe still comes with a tax penalty.

Taxation shapes whether Europeans save, invest, or stay on the sidelines, yet it remains the missing piece of the Savings and Investments Union debate.

BETTER FINANCE will address these questions at its International Investors Conference:
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝐓𝐚𝐱𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬

📅18 June 2026
🕐 13:00 – 16:30 (GMT)
📍Reykjavík + Online

Discussions will cover the taxation of investments and savings across jurisdictions, withholding tax reclaim procedures and double taxation, and the role of taxation in supporting capital markets integration.

Follow the conference in-person or online 👉 https://betterfinance.eu/event/taxation-long-term-investments-eu-conference/

26/05/2026

The EU designed a pension product for citizens across all 27 Member States. Yet, its available in just 5 Member States and offered by just 2 providers.
Most Europeans have never heard of it.
Two years after the PEPP Regulation entered into force, the Pan-European Personal Pension Product remains a promise unkept. The financial industry says a 1% fee cap makes it commercially unviable. However, pension providers in Australia, the US, and the UK operate at similar or lower costs.

𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬?

Read our analysis on why PEPP doesn’t deliver its promise 👉https://betterfinance.substack.com/p/europe-created-pepp-so-why-cant-most

20/05/2026

Over 30 banking and finance corporations lobby EU policymakers. In 2025 alone, corporate actors are estimated to have spent €343 million to influence and shape EU financial rules. In comparison, individual investors and savers have virtually no seat at that table.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥.

In 2025, BETTER FINANCE placed 24 experts across 44 EU advisory groups, submitted 24 consultation responses, and published seven research reports... all to ensure that millions of European citizens are represented where decisions are made.

What did that work achieve❓ What remains unresolved❓ The full picture is set out in our 2025 Annual Report.

Read the full report 👉 https://betterfinance.eu/publication/annual-report-2025/

18/05/2026

𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐱𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬?

Across Europe, retail investors face withholding taxes, double taxation, and reclaim processes so complex that most simply give up. The system was not designed with the individual investor in mind.

Fair taxation of savings and investments is a question of purchasing power.

On 18 June, BETTER FINANCE brings together high-level speakers to examine how tax rules across jurisdictions affect household investors and what reform should look like.

Will the conclusions change the policy debate?

𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞! 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 👉https://betterfinance.eu/event/taxation-long-term-investments-eu-conference/

13/05/2026

BETTER FINANCE welcomes improvement on EU pension reform, but warns savers still lack power, transparency, and fair returns.

BETTER FINANCE has analysed the Commission's proposed reforms to IORP II, PEPP, and pension tracking systems. The package improves governance and disclosure in several areas. But critical gaps remain on fee transparency, saver empowerment, and the adequacy of pension tracking tools.

𝐈𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬?

Read our press release 👉https://betterfinance.eu/publication/pr-better-finance-welcomes-pension-reform-warns-savers/

11/05/2026

Investment scams cost European consumers over €20 billion a year. Yet no bank, no platform, and no regulator is clearly responsible when the money disappears.

BETTER FINANCE's latest brief breaks down the most common tactics used by scammers, why the current EU framework fails victims and what targeted reforms can fix it.

Read the full analysis 👉 https://betterfinance.substack.com/p/online-scams-are-wreaking-havoc-across

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Maandag	09:30 - 17:30
Dinsdag	09:30 - 17:30
Woensdag	09:30 - 17:30
Donderdag	09:30 - 17:30
Vrijdag	09:30 - 17:30

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https://betterfinance.eu/

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