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EFIN-Newsletter n°6
EFIN Newsletter n°7
Bank account access : from a recommendation to a recommendation ?
Following the Commission’s recommendation to Member states to enhance financial inclusion the Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, IMCO, decided to draft an opinion letter. Rapporteurs from most of the large parliamentary groups were unhappy with the Committee’s proposal and considered that there should be binding legislation. MEP Alfredo Pallone, Italy, drafted this opinion on Consumer Policy and Financial Inclusion urging a binding legislative proposal.
The Financial Stability Board last study on consumer protection and credit use
The Financial Stability Board finalised a report (October 2011) "(i) provides a global overview of policy initiatives completed or planned to strengthen consumer protection frameworks (section 2); (ii) presents a comprehensive picture of existing and evolving institutional arrangements (section 3); and (iii) reviews the work of
regulators and prudential supervisors in various areas of consumer protection, including responsible lending practices, disclosure guidelines, product intervention, and complaints and dispute resolution (section 4). Drawing from the findings of a stock-taking exercise, the report presents internationally applicable lessons and identifies gaps where additional international work could help to advance consumer finance protection and financial stability (section 5)."
Financial in/exclusion of ethnic minorities in the spotlight...
The European Network Against Racism's dedicate its last Websine issue to financial inclusion issues. "It gives an overview of the obstacles faced by ethnic minorities and migrants in accessing banking services and building assets, presents microfinance initiatives and the specific issues of ethnic entrepreneurs, as well as a series of best practices of financial inclusion of ethnic minorities".
An asset building project experiment at EU level...
A project to provide knowledge and share experience on saving behaviours of low-income people
EFIN will participate to the project, especially on the netwroking and dissemination last steps
A) SIMS - Social Experiments on Micro-savings in four european countries
Four pilot experiments are implemented simultaneously in Belgium, France, Hungary and the United Kingdom to test innovative programmes promoting savings among low income and poor people (Micro-Savings). They will test financial education, asset building and financial incentives methods in order to identify interventions that are effective at encouraging targeted groups to save.
B) Social experiment evaluation
To measure the impact of the experimentations and the implementation effectiveness in each country, the four pilot experiments are evaluated by a dedicated evaluator in collaboration with local partners.
C) Mutual learning & stakeholders networking
From the very start, a stakeholder’s network including project partners but also other stakeholders will be built and activated. Members of the network will be provided with information about the project as it runs and will be invited to get involved in a mutual learning process. To enhance mutual learning, a two days event will be organized in Brussels gathering 150 stakeholders. Five different workshops will run simultaneously the first day and a conference plenary session will present workshops results and main project findings the second day.
Dissemination
Dissemination of the project findings will also be ensured by the production of various multilingual products designed for governments, key actors and the public at large.
Finance Watch a new important actor in Financial inclusion representation at EU level
The mission of this non-governmental organisation is : "to strengthen the voice of society in the reform of financial regulation by conducting citizen advocacy and presenting public interest arguments to lawmakers and the public as a counterweight to the private interest lobbying of the financial industry."
We invite you to explore its very interesting website ! www..finance-watch.org . For your information, 3 members of EFIN are also members of Finance Watch : Réseau Financement Alternatif, BEUC and Rym Ayadi. You will find an interview of Thierry Philipponat, Finance Watch Secretary General in the September 2011 ESBG News & Views, p. 17
EFIN new members...
Since the last 2010 General Assembly, new applicants have been accepted as new members via a written procedure.
The new members are :
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United-Kingdom - Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol
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Portugal – ANDC (national microcredit association)
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Netherland – Hoogschool In Holland
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Greece – EPKAS Consumer's Protection Union of Serres
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Individual - Mrs Sophia Velissarato