Client protection under Belgian financial law: recent developments in information duties, product intervention and beyond
(2014) Revue Internationale des Services Financiers — Vol. 4, n° 4, p. 1-33 (2014)
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- (en) The Belgian financial supervisory authority (the Financial Services and Markets Authority or ‘FSMA’) pro-activity in recent months is striking. It drafted many rules and issued many regulations, warnings, circulars or other communications to increase the protection of clients who buy financial products on Belgian financial markets. But does the FSMA go too far too fast to the detriment of legal certainty, the competitiveness of the Belgian financial sector and, to some extent, financial clients themselves? This article tries to answer that question by examining some of the most recent developments in client protection on Belgian financial markets with respect to (1) provisions relating to pre-contractual and marketing information obligations, and related liability, supervision and sanction regimes, (2) product governance arrangements and (3) ‘product intervention powers’. They were introduced in Belgian law by the ‘Twin Peaks II package’, Book VI of the new Code of economic law, the transversal marketing Royal decree, the FSMA label regulation, and the FSMA prohibition on the distribution of several non-mainstream financial products to retail clients. In the conclusions to this article, we give a critical assessment of the focus of the Belgian legislator on disclosure and product intervention. We explain that we favor point-of-sale regulation and product governance arrangements as regulatory approach to protect financial clients. Only to that extent do we support the FSMA pro-activity.
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Schaeken Willemaers, G. (2014). Client protection under Belgian financial law: recent developments in information duties, product intervention and beyond. Revue Internationale des Services Financiers, 4(4), 1-33. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/195106 (Original work published 2014)