This year FECIF will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. The association has moved on a lot since it was created by a group of successful entrepreneurs who had started to shape financial advice across Europe.
Our environment has changed, with of course a lot of growth in household savings across Europe and more need for advice, as Europeans grow both richer and older, but also with more and more complex regulation.
FECIF Members have evolved as well, and we are now a group of associations rather than distribution networks. This has helped us become larger and more representative, but also more exposed to regulation.
FECIF intends to focus squarely on advocacy: this means carrying the voice of financial advisors to the European regulators, policymakers and the Commission, and bringing to national associations a high-level view of what is being prepared in Brussels that is likely to impact our activities. Furthermore, both associations of European countries that are part of the EU and non-EU members are addressing many common issues, which is why the evolution of legislation within the European Union is of great interest to everyone.
Financial advisors
The best example in this is the discussion on Retail Investment Strategy over the past 12 months: FECIF helped identify the problems and present the position of the financial advisors, in very close co-ordination with the work of each individual association with their local regulators, but also in co-operation with other European associations (Brokers, insurers, fund managers, etc.)
Thanks to the work of these years FECIF is now recognized as a stakeholder by the European Commission, as evidenced by the invitation and participation to the two Roundtables on the distribution of retail investment products, which were held respectively on the 18th of July 2023 and on the 11th of April 2024 in Brussels.
In these occasions, the Federation had the opportunity and honor to collaborate with other associations in the sector, including EFAMA (European Fund and Asset Management Association), the European Banking Federation (EBF) and Insurance Europe, to develop a discussion paper presented to the European Commission that focuses on some fundamental aspects:
- Increase the participation of retail investors in capital markets;
- policy recommendations to foster growth and competitiveness in the retail segment;
- using new technologies to better help consumers.
Collaboration
The climate of collaboration that was created and the important ideas that emerged have strengthened our belief that sharing and union are fundamental to progress and improve the European context in which we work, as well as basic values for all associations.
For this reason, another objective of Fecif is to involve more and more associations from different European countries, both part of EU and outside EU, confident that diversity and comparison help dialogue and allow the creation of a more inclusive environment in which the voice of the advisers and intermediaries who operate in the financial, insurance, banking fields can emerge and be heard.
Finally, we are firmly convinced of the social role of financial advice, which has the well-being of citizens as its primary objective. In particular, the improvement of the financial education of citizens and their possibilities to access capital markets represents an area in which the European Union can make great progress and that can enhance its growth both from an economic and social point of view.
Article was written by Vania Franceschelli, Chairperson FECIF.
