Capital Markets Union: Public hearing on how to improve consumers’ access to investment products

Tomorrow, the Commission will host a public hearing on how to improve the functioning of EU’s capital markets for the benefit of consumers and individual investors.

Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, responsible for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, will open the event. Fostering retail investments is one of the key objectives of the Capital Markets Union Action Plan launched by the Commission in 2015, which included several actions to address the challenges of individuals investing in products such as securities, mutual funds, investment-based insurance products and private pensions. Today’s public hearing will give participants from consumer organisations, the industry, representatives of the Member States and supervisory authorities, the opportunity to share their views on how to enhance the functioning of those markets. The public hearing is also an occasion to discuss the findings of the recent study “Distribution systems of retail investment products across the European Union“ published by the Commission last April, which identified a series obstacles that EU consumers face when buying investment products. The event will be web streamed here. A report following the conclusion of the event will be published online here.