German government aims to correct MiFID II “excesses”
The German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) has expressed a commitment to correcting the “excesses” of the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II).
At a conference in Brussels last week, hosted in front of the European Parliament and consumers’ right organisations, the ministry stressed its focus on correcting the directive.
German government plans MiFID II changes
It argued that the fund industry is struggling with MiFID II’s requirement for recorded telephone calls, the information obligations towards professional customers and the different information requirements about costs under MiFID II and the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (Priips) regulation.
Any potential revisions of the regulation are due to take place in March 2020. BMF approached the EU Commission (EC) with two position papers on necessary amendments to investor protection provisions in both MiFID II and the Packed Retail Investment and Insurance Based Products (Priips) regulation.
“We are impressed by how strongly the Federal Ministry of Finance is committed, based on the protection of investors, to eliminating the deficiencies of MiFID,” said Thomas Richter, CEO of the German fund association BVI.
“The directive was intended to protect consumers, but the result is that they receive excessive product information and less investment advice. MiFID II has clearly overshot its target.
“The position paper of the Federal Government was the first step in the direction of making the necessary changes, now it is a matter of finding allies in the EC and the parliament for them. We therefore expressly welcome the BMF’s initiative.”
