La Repubblica | January 2023
The European Commission intends to abolish the remuneration of product houses for those who place financial products. A measure that aims to reduce costs for small investors, but which at the same time risks restricting the audience of those who have access to professional advice
Nicola Ronchetti, founder and CEO of the research institute Finer Finance Explorer also took part in the debate. For the expert, “waging war on inducements without analyzing possible scenarios could prove to be risky” for two sets of reasons. The first is that “distributors would only offer homemade products, limiting the offer, the competition between asset managers and therefore probably also the quality”. The second is that “those who would be penalized would be the least well-off end investors who could not pay for valuable consultancy”.
Therefore, the ban could mark the decline of the current model of open architecture (with consultants proposing a bouquet of offers, including household products) for the benefit of a closed architecture (fewer products and only those that the consultant has an interest in push). In short, an intricate situation in which a balance point will not be easy.