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This week, the four forming parties presented the outline agreement "Hope, Guts and Pride. Business climate and competitiveness are high on the agreement's agenda. An important signal to the Dutch business community, which we at DUFAS welcome. At the same time we want to continue to urge a new cabinet to focus on stability, security and clear climate goals.
European elections will take place next month. Leading up to it, we share some priorities for the upcoming European legislative cycle. These include a number of concrete proposals in the areas of capital markets union, sustainability and retail investment.
As of Jan. 17, 2025, financial institutions must comply with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). To make it easier to amend contracts, industry associations DUFAS, VV&A, the Pension Federation and the Association of Insurers have created a market standard in the form of a template amendment that contains all the necessary clauses.
Banks, insurers, pension funds and asset managers will intensify their commitment to financing the energy transition. The new Climate Commitment Work Plan sets out how the financial sector will continue to fulfill its international pioneering role in the climate field. For example, financial parties will further deepen and exchange knowledge and experience in this field among themselves and together with external partners.
Strengthening the capital market union is top of mind in Brussels. Recently, former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta published the report "Much more than a market." Letta delivered an opinion for the European Council on how to proceed with the European capital market union.
Earlier this year, the European Commission published a white paper and accompanying consultation on "outbound investments" as part of the European Economic Security Strategy. In it, the EC mentioned that investments in third countries in a number of critical technologies could risk EU know-how being used to undermine international peace and security. These are mainly technologies suitable for enhancing military and intelligence capabilities.
In this series, we engage with leading figures in the asset management industry and beyond. To kick things off, we spoke with Marnix Kluiters, founder of the podcast Ecosophy.
The European Parliament recently proposed the introduction of an independent comparison tool for various investment products. Randy Pattiselanno talks more about this in his latest column on Investment Officer.
At the end of 2023, the Tax Qualification Policy of Legal Forms Act was passed. This law introduces from January 1, 2025 a new framework to assess whether (foreign) legal forms qualify as transparent or non-transparent for tax purposes. What matters for foreign legal forms is whether they are comparable to a Dutch legal form.
On December 14, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a discussion paper on investor protection and digitalization. We consider it positive that ESMA pays attention to this and responded to it March 14. This consultation response relates in particular to the technique of 'layering' used in an online environment. In addition, we expressed our concerns about the practice of financial influencers (finfluencers), especially in the Dutch context.
From March 11 to 15, it is "Money Week. This week is dedicated to making students in primary, secondary and vocational schools financially aware. For us, financial education is an important focus. After all, with greater financial awareness comes greater financial security.
On Thursday, February 29, the DUFAS Asset Management College Tour took place at Utrecht University. It was a successful edition, during which the CEOs, Karin van Baardwijk of Robeco and Martijn Rozemuller of VanEck, were extensively questioned about their experiences in the asset management sector.
