Do financial services meet the needs of those who use them? Are consumers and their views represented in European financial services policies? Do users of financial services get the best value for their money? These are some of the questions the European Commission’s Financial Services Users Group tackles on a regular basis. 

Advisory expert group

The number of organisations representing consumers and retail investors that actively voice users’ opinions at EU level has always been relatively small. For this reason, the Commission decided in 2010 to create an advisory expert group, called the Financial Services Users Groups, or FSUG. The FSUG is made up of members representing consumers, users, retail investors as well as a number of academics. It has a wide geographical base, with members from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the UK.

The Group meets eight times a year to prepare replies to Commission consultations, discuss consumer protection in the area of retail financial services and outline potential risks that consumers face in various countries and at a pan-European level. For the members, the group offers a way of complementing the work they are carrying out in their respective fields and assessing the potential impact EU policy decisions may have as well as influencing policy making at EU level. For the Commission, the group offers a way of finding out the views of consumers and retail investors, feedback about the application of EU policies in a number of Member States, and a way of being alerted in advance about emerging risks and potential problems encountered by users of financial services.

Some of the findings of the research commissioned at the request of the group have attracted the attention of the financial services industry as well as the press. For example, the findings of the "Study on the Performance and Efficiency of the European asset management industry" were cited in an article in the Financial Times as well as in a debate in the UK Parliament.

Annual meetings

Once a year the group meets outside Brussels at the invitation of one of the members. Last year the meeting took place in Warsaw to discuss the situation of users of financial services in Poland. These annual meetings offer the group a way of getting a better grasp of the national context in different EU countries and a clearer overview of the relevant issues in the development of Member States’ financial services markets.

The most recent meeting of the FSUG took place in Amsterdam on 8 and 9 June 2015, at the invitation of the Dutch Investors Association VEB. The meeting included discussions about developments in retail investment, pensions, asset management and the positive effects of the ban on inducements, and examples of cooperation between all stakeholders in the Dutch financial sector.

As part of the two-day meeting, the chairman of the FSUG, Mick McAteer, together with Erik Nooteboom, head of the Retail Financial Services and Payments unit in DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, rang the bell opening the trading at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (Euronext), one of Europe’s major stock exchanges.

You can see the Bell Ceremony here

Read more on the FSUG