CFA Institute launches European Investors Working Group

Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009
Author: Hedgeweek.com

The European Investors Working Group has met for the first time in Brussels to set the agenda for the group's contribution towards creating an efficient, effective and globally competitive European regulatory model.

The EIWG has been established as an independent, non-political body to evaluate both the strengths and weaknesses of the existing regulatory model of the financial markets and proposed solutions to the current crisis. The primary objective is to represent the interests of professional investors, and through them the many thousands of investors they serve.
 
The co-sponsors of the EIWG are the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity, the policy arm of CFA Institute, and the European Capital Markets Institute, an independent research entity managed by the Centre for European Policy Studies.
 
The group is chaired by Fabrice Demarigny, head of capital markets activities at Mazars and former secretary general of Committee of European Securities Regulators. Members of the group are investor organisations, industry observers and investment practitioners.

The EIWG's initial agenda will focus on MiFID; market abuse and the prospectus directives; the Lamfalussy and the de Larosière framework on the supervisory side; funds and investment products, including the Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive; and corporate governance and transparency issues.
 
Charles Cronin, head of the CFA Institute Centre for Europe, Middle East and Africa, says: "Policy making is now progressing at a pace rarely seen before. The scope for major regulatory reform has never been greater. In this context, it is important that the collective voice of investors and users of financial information is given the weight it merits. It is critical that the coming reforms be measured and modern in their design and application and that their framework must offer protection to investors that is both adequate and effective.
 
"The European Investors Working Group has been founded to ensure the proper involvement and perspective of professional investors in a process that will likely result in the most dynamic and significant regulatory reform in modern history. The Group will aim to serve as a constructive and reasoned voice in the proposal, discussion and implementation of these expected regulatory changes which can have profound effect on all classes of investors."