Dear friends, dear interested, The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is celebrating its birthday. 10 years have passed since its establishment on 1 January 2011. Time to take stock. On the occasion of its anniversary, ESMA is organising a public online conference on 23 March 2021. At the conference, I will join a high-profile […]
Crooked dealings: Market abuse in connection with Cum-Ex and co. must be rigorously prosecuted
Dear friends, dear interested, Billions of euros have been looted from public coffers through Cum-Ex and co. These tax fraud schemes all involve crooked dealings on the financial markets. To obtain refunds for unpaid dividend taxes, the fraudsters have to trade in shares and derivatives on a grand scale. All these transactions have no other […]
Success at the GameStop hearing: European authorities will take a closer look at neo-brokers’ business models
Dear friends, dear interested, This is good news for all retail investors: Yesterday, on 24 February, Steven Maijoor, the chairman of the European securities supervisor ESMA, promised me that his authority will take a closer look at the business models of the so-called neo-brokers. Ugo Bassi, responsible director at the European Commission, also announced an […]
Despite ECB cap: Bonus payments by Deutsche Bank still too high
Bloomberg and the Financial Times report that Deutsche Bank’s bonus plans for 2020 had been downsized by the ECB, citing internal sources. Before, it had been expected that bonus payments at Germany’s largest lender could rise compared to the previous year. For 2019, Deutsche Bank had paid out around 1.5 billion euros to employees, despite […]
Auditor in the Wirecard case: Fatal incentive structures need reform
An investigation by the Handelsblatt shows that the auditors at EY no longer “believed in the innocence of the management” of Wirecard already in early 2019. Previously, incriminating material had been leaked to the audit firm by a whistleblower. Wirecard’s supervisory board also knew about the auditors’ concerns. But EY caved in: Only weeks later, […]
Brexit letter bears green signature: EU economics lawmakers call for improvements
Dear friends, dear interested, The draft Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK must not open the door to tax avoidance and money laundering. The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has reiterated this demand in a joint letter supported by all pro-European political groups. Concretely, we demand that […]