On the request of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection five briefing papers have been prepared by a panel of experts to serve as a background to the Public Hearing on Financial Education and to an expert panel discussion on the same topic. Hereunder a summary of the main...

This study has considered the impact that the Financial Services Action Plan and the legislative measures of the Financial Services White Paper have already had and should be expected to have in the future. These impacts are considered for the European Union as a whole and for each of the...

The Bank of Cyprus Public Company Ltd. was founded in 1899 and is the holding company of the Bank of Cyprus Group. The Bank is the leading financial services organisation in Cyprus and operates 115 branches in Greece. It is also well established in the United Kingdom, where it operates six...

This report gives an overview of working conditions, job quality, workers’ health and job sustainability in the financial services sector, covering the subsectors of banking (NACE 64), insurance (NACE 65), and activities auxiliary to banking and insurance (NACE 66). It is based mostly on the...

In 2006 the external net borrowing requirement of the Spanish economy was almost 8% of GDP, after having been in balance between 1993 and 1998. This increased borrowing requirement is the financial mirror image of a growth model, in which corporate and households' investments are generating an...

One feature of the global economy in recent years has been the increasing number and importance of new investment funds (private equity (PE), hedge funds (HFs), and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)), which are sometimes referred to as alternative investment funds (AIFs). This increase has...

This report examines whether investment funds – in particular, private equity, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds – help to revive underperforming companies and thereby contribute to employment growth or whether, on the contrary, they strive to maximise financial returns at the expense...

The study examines the incidence of vulnerability across the EU28 and Iceland and Norway, and the factors explaining any observed vulnerability. The study uses a range of information sources (literature review, stakeholder interviews, consumer survey and consumer experiments in five countries)...