Activities of Jonás FERNÁNDEZ related to 2020/2036(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Digital Finance: emerging risks in crypto-assets - regulatory and supervisory challenges in the area of financial services, institutions and markets - Further development of the Capital Markets Union (CMU): improving access to capital market finance, in particular by SMEs, and further enabling retail investor participation (debate)
Amendments (46)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the CMU should provide a regulatory environment which mitigates risks to financial stability, and adequately protects the interests of retail investors, pensioners and consumers and safeguards environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the development of a CMU goes necessarily hand in hand with the deepening of the economic and monetary union, and in particular with the completion of the banking union and the creation of a mechanism of fiscal stabilisation for the euro area as a whole; whereas the CMU must be complemented by counter-cyclical policy measures to foster aggregate demand and reduce inequalities;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas an enabling framework for public sustainable investments, namely the introduction of a golden rule to exclude sustainable investments from the EU’s deficit calculation, is crucial to complement further initiatives within the CMU to crowd in private investment and promote sustainable and long term allocation of private capital;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas legislative harmonisation remains insufficient to create a truly European capital market if diverging national implementation, supervision, and enforcement practices remain in place;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas legislative harmonisation remains insufficient to create a truly European capital market if diverging national implementation, supervision, and enforcement practices remain in place;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas most measures that have been considered and implemented aim to improve and unify capital markets relate to the professional tools and financial vehicles available to practitioners in intermediation and their clients (basically institutions, funds and high net worth individuals), the CMU needs to mobilise retail demand, which in Europe lags at well below the levels prevailing in the USA or Japan; whereas to achieve such an objective, retail investors have to experience a change in investment culture; whereas such a change will only happen when retail investors become convinced that investment in capital markets is desirable because it can be of profit to them more than say, bank deposits, while being subject to risks that are acceptable and clearly defined;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas SMEs accounted for 99.8% of all enterprises in the EU-28 non-financial business sector (NFBS), generating 56.4% of value added and 66.6% of employment in the NFBS; whereas micro SMEs accounted for 93% of the sector, small SMEs 5,9% and Medium-sized SMEs only 0,9%1a; _________________ 1aEuropean Commission ANNUAL REPORT ON EUROPEAN SMEs 2018/2019
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the EU and its Member States have made a clear commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and to the necessary transition to a climate- neutral society by 2050 at the latest; whereas a framework to facilitate sustainable investment is currently being developed; whereas this framework forms an integral part of the EU’s efforts, under the CMU, to connect finance with needs of the economy and the EU’s sustainable development agenda;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas one of the challenges of a CMU is to ensure equal access to financing and to investment opportunities across the European Union, which should be geographically balanced, reaching citizens and businesses in core and peripheral regions of the European Union;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas investment activities tend to remain confined by national borders, and retail investors face numerous obstacles to access opportunities outside their Member State, due to legal uncertainty, language and cultural barriers, market fragmentation and costly inefficiencies in the EU;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas the lack of a centralised mechanism with easily accessible, reliable, understandable and comparable public information is one of the reasons why companies struggle to find investors;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C d (new)
Recital C d (new)
Cd. whereas the funding ecosystem for SME IPOs in the EU is underdeveloped due to information asymmetries, high costs, administrative burdens, and lack of equity culture; whereas investors find it difficult to evaluate young and small firms with a short business record thus hindering innovative openings especially by young entrepreneurs;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C e (new)
Recital C e (new)
Ce. whereas Fintech has the potential to suit certain needs of SMEs and retail investors by allowing decentralised ways of operating and delivering efficiency improvements;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls for the removal of barriers, including the simplification of legislation , where appropriate, to diversify funding sources for SMEs, in order to promote SMEs’ ability to access equity markets, and to reduce the existing debt bias; points out that the current situation makes SMEs more fragile and vulnerable;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Calls on the Commission and Member States to actively inform SMEs of the alternative financing instruments available to them;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Welcomes the idea of establishing a European Single Access Point (ESAP) to aggregate information about companies in the EU through the interconnection of existing national and EU registers and databases of company data, as a way to support companies, in particular in smaller Member States, to attract investors; stresses that companies should be able to control the availability of their data in the ESAP;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for the acceleration of the development of EU venture capital (VC) and private equity markets by increasing the availability of funding for VC investments, developing larger late-stage VC funds, tax incentive schemes for VC and business angel investments, and active IPO markets for VC-backed companies; under a common, and transparent, EU level framework; underlines that these tax incentive schemes should be designed so as to be economically and socially viable and responsible, and be subject to systematic monitoring and evaluation;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Takes the view that amending national tax frameworks unilaterally within the EU to reduce tax obstacles to cross-border investments will further entrench the patchwork of tax rules that companies must comply with when operating cross border, with numerous costs, and offer further possibilities for tax avoidance; reiterates its call on Member States to agree on the adoption of the proposals concerning the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base simultaneously, taking into consideration Parliament’s opinion that already includes the concept of virtual permanent establishment and apportionment formulas; calls on the Member States to bridge their diverging positions on CCCTB, given the importance of this instrument to create a framework that fosters certainty, prevents double taxation, reduces administrative costs, thereby enhancing cross-border investments;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Highlights the importance of increasing legal certainty for cross-border investments by making national insolvency proceedingsby further harmonising insolvency proceedings law in the EU, as well as security ownership regimes, namely the definition of “shareholder” and its inherent rights; more efficient and effective;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses the necessity of advancing further in the implementation of a genuinely Single Rule Book for financial services in the internal market, where priority should be given to the continuing development of common definitions and standards on sustainable finance;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Underlines the need to promote pension provision; welcomes the Pan- European Personal Pension (PEPP) product, whose regulation foresees that capital should be invested taking into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors; notes that PEPP is as a complementary and voluntary pension pillar with regard to national public pension systems; regrets that the PEPP Regulation lacks a true pan-European approach because it keeps the authorisation process at a national level, and gives a secondary role to EIOPA; reminds Member States that PEPPs need to be subject to the same tax treatment as national pension products to become an option for savers;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Recalls that the Solvency 2 Directive requires a review by the end of 2020 and that the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) will provide technical advice to the Commission after consultations with different stakeholders; requests the Commission and EIOPA to consider adjusting the capital requirements for investments in equity and private debt, in particular of SMEs;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls, in this regard, for forthcoming revision of EU financial services regulation to attribute greater supervision and regulatory powers to EU supervisors, namely ESMA, including direct oversight over certain market segments and greater product intervention powers; recalls furthermore the need to reform the governance structure of the European Supervisory Authorities to make them truly independent of national supervisors;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls on the Commission to ensure the proper funding of civil society operators and consumers representatives in the field of financial services, who offer invaluable insight and independent assessment to policy-makers and regulators;
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Is concerned about the recent scandal involving the German FinTech company Wirecard, as well as the role and potential short comings of Germany's financial supervisory authority and that of one of the auditors, Ernst and Young; stresses the importance of consistent supervision in scope and application whomever the provider is, in as far as the key service provided is a financial service; calls on the EU and national competent authorities to proceed with a thorough inquiry including on the adequacy of the supervisory response, the independence of the auditor, the corporate governance of the company, and on the missing funds; calls on the Commission to look into ways of improving the functioning of the accounting sector, including through joint audits and the separation between consulting and audit services;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Notes the lack of information about the non-debt financing market for SMEs; calls in this regard for better data collection about the non-debt financing tools previously used by the SME population; insists that it could significantly help in assessing and implementing policies in this area;
Amendment 227 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Is concerned that retail investors’ engagement with financial markets remains low; calls for measures to promote retail investments in view of the demographic challenges faced by the EU by increasing the participation of retail investors in capital markets through more attractive and appropriate personal pension products; in particular, welcomes the new uniform set of criteria for EU-wide rules to help crowdfunding services function smoothly and foster cross-border business funding, notably for medium-sized and micro- enterprises;
Amendment 243 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. RecCalls the existence of different shortcomingsfor the improvement of the disclosure and comparability of key information in the legislation on packaged retail investment and insurance products (PRIIPs) that should be addressed in the next review; expects that Level 2 PRIIPs legislation on the Key Investor Document to respect level 1, in particular in relation to the performance scenarios; regrets the delays in the adoption of Level 2 PRIIPs legislation that will overlap with the first review of PRIIPs, and which increases legal uncertainty and costs for stakeholders; insists that the forthcoming review should provide for disclosure documents which are standardised and machine readable, thereby providing for comparability in a digital-friendly way;
Amendment 258 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Is of the opinionTakes note of the belief expressed by financial market intermediaries that the current reporting framework within MIFID II and the European Mmarket Iinfrastructure Rregulation (EMIR) is very costly and complex, hindering the effectiveness of the system; believes that a simplification thereof is necessarshould be considered while taking full account of current experience and ensuring that this in no way serves to undermine the aims set for MIFID II and EMIR and without hindering rules on market integrity, transparency, consumer protection and financial stability;
Amendment 271 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Calls for amendments to legislation to ensure access to independent advice by financial intermediaries while avoiding promotion of the institution’s own financial products and ensuring a fair marketing of financial products; agrees that the role of inducements in intermediation and distribution should be further examined to ensure that no conflicts of interest arise and that financial advice is fairly, transparently and adequately supplied to investors;
Amendment 272 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Supports a renewed sustainable finance strategy in full consistency with the CMU project; calls on the Commission to propose the definition of an eco-label for financial products; underlines the need for an EU Green Bond Standard (EU GBS) for more reliable, comparable and accessible sustainability data obtained by harmonising sustainability indicators with sector-specific Key Performance Indicators; for an EU public sustainability data register and mainstreaming sustainability within all financial legislation through legislative reviews, enabling investors to better act upon their sustainability preferences;
Amendment 274 #
19a. Proposes to the Commission to look into the possibility for an EU Individual Savings Accounts, as a complement to national regimes, that could overcome national fragmented markets by operating in a uniform manner and across heterogeneous markets, ensuring portability and security of savings;
Amendment 276 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 c (new)
Paragraph 19 c (new)
Amendment 281 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Underlines that financial education is needed to overcome low retail investor engagement with financial markets, based on lack of knowledge, mistrust and risk aversionNotes that lack of financial literacy and access to widespread public information about financial markets is one of the reasons that explain lack of equity culture in the EU; underlines that financial education is needed to overcome low retail investor engagement with financial markets, based on lack of knowledge, mistrust and risk aversion; insists that an information campaign directed to SMEs on the alternative financing instruments at their disposal could significantly help in deepening the CMU; urges the Commission to launch and support public programmes in Member States to foster financial and digital literacy using a range of instruments, including digital and social media, to engage with citizens and businesses, namely through public agencies created for that effect;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Emphasises that financial education is a medium-term tool, which enriches the financial system and which is a good step for engaging retail investors with financial markets; however, notes that up to now, financial education has had extremely limited traction in promoting and enhancing equity dealings, both nationally and on a cross-border basis;
Amendment 294 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Calls for the promotion of Employee Share Ownership as a way to encourage citizens’ participation in capital markets and help develop an equity culture; proposes that this could be done through for instance a multilingual EU portal to raise awareness about the scheme and inform about its benefits;
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Takes the view that the digitalisation of financial services can be a catalyst for the mobilisation of capital in the EU while reducing barriers and increasing supervisory efficiency; emphasises that an EU framework with high standards of cybersecurity would be conducive to the CMU; notes that such EU framework should be primarily fit for the digital age and technology neutral;
Amendment 306 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Notes that large technology firms and global digital platforms are increasingly offering financial services and benefit from competitive advantages such as economies of scale, vast cross- border user networks, easy access to financing and the ability to harvest large swaths of data provided by users through data processing technologies such as “big data analytics”, which generate tremendous added value in a variety of ways;
Amendment 308 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Calls on the Commission to use the forthcoming reviews of financial services regulations to foster investor and shareholder engagement through digital tools;
Amendment 309 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)
Paragraph 23 b (new)
23b. Stresses that many peer-to-peer lenders are already lending funds to small businesses, making crypto-assets a non- traditional financing channel for SMEs; insists in this regard that clear guidance is needed on the applicability of existing regulatory and prudential processes to crypto-assets which qualify as financial instruments as far as EU legislation is concerned, in order to provide regulatory certainty regarding crypto-assets; stresses that this guidance must be provided consistently at the EU level, to avoid different practices of qualification and supervision by national authorities, which creates an un-level playing field, forum shopping and regulatory arbitrage in the internal market;
Amendment 310 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)
Paragraph 23 b (new)
23b. Calls on the Commission to monitor the offering of financial services by “BigTech” firms, and also how the competitive advantages inherent to these operators may distort competition in the market, harm the interests of consumers and innovation; stresses that these companies must be regulated and supervised as financial services firms to the extent they offer financial services;
Amendment 312 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 c (new)
Paragraph 23 c (new)
23c. Stresses that initial coin offerings, being the equivalent of IPOs for cryptocurrencies, have potential in funding SMEs, innovative start-ups and scale-ups; highlights that ICOs can facilitate the exchange of value without the need for a central authority or intermediary which allows for more efficiency and also for the democratisation of financing; notes in this regards that ICOs can accelerate technology transfer, and can be an essential part of the capital markets union; calls on the Commission to assess the advantages of proposing legislative framework for initial coin offerings and initial exchange offerings to foster a coherent EU approach, increase legal certainty, investor and consumer protection, raise warnings, and reduce risks stemming from asymmetric information, fraudulent behaviour and illegal activities;
Amendment 324 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Points out that Europe competes for capital in a global market, and that, as a result, deeper, more integrated and efficient European capital markets are critical to protecting Europe’s economic sovereignty, the use of the euro in third countries, and to attracting foreign investors; believes that the exit of the UK from the EU makes this objective even more important and that it should be pursued according to transparent rules-based criteria and not case-by-case;