The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has today published its annual report for 2021. On this occasion, the FSMA held a webinar presenting its supervision of compliance with the rules intended to protect investors and introducing an innovative tool based on data analysis.
The core mission of the FSMA is to contribute to an honest and fair treatment of financial consumers and to transparency in the financial markets. The MiFID conduct of business rules for consumer protection are an important instrument for achieving this objective in the area of investments. The FSMA supervises compliance by the financial sector with those rules of conduct.
In the past decade, we have seen a positive trend in compliance with the MiFID rules of conduct. They have come to be better integrated into the sector and have proven their added value. There remain, however, a few points requiring improvement. Many of those points concern the way in which products are developed, including the associated fees and potential return.
More information on this matter is available in the webinar presentation.
On the occasion of the publication of the 2021 annual report, the FSMA also introduced an innovative tool that is based on data analysis. This tool enables the FSMA to detect so-called ‘Closet Indexing’. Closet Indexing refers to the practice whereby a fund that is said to be actively managed and charges investors fees for that service is in reality under passive management. This practice is disadvantageous to investors. Click here for the press release on Closet Indexing.
If you wish to know more about the main points of the Annual Report, we invite you to view and listen to the video message (available in French - Dutch only) by the Chairman of the FSMA, Jean-Paul Servais.
The full text of the 2021 annual report is available via the FSMA’s website (available in French - Dutch only).