Sustainable Finance and Consumer Protection
Karsten Wurth
[relevant_sector]
Karsten Wurth
Enabling Greek and Czech retail investors to express their sustainability demands – and financial advisors to consider these in their product recommendations.
Background
Research from the 2° Investing Initiative (2DII) suggest that a majority of retail clients across Europe have sustainability investment objectives. Yet, “sustainable finance” doesn’t play a major role in the Greek and Czech climate action policies. This needs to change in order to implement the reform of the MIFID/IDD regulation which obliges financial advisors to ask about and take into account the sustainability preferences of their retail clients.
A plant grows in a glass of coins. Photo: (c) Micheile Henderson
Project
To support efforts to implement the reform, the project focusses on both ends of the client-advisor relationship. First, it increases the ability of individual clients to understand, articulate and express their sustainability-related investment objectives. Second, it builds the technical capacity of financial advisors and distributors to anticipate, interpret and integrate their clients’ demands into suitable product recommendations.
To achieve these goals, the project employs a variety of measures. Relying on knowledge and research results acquired in previous projects, the project conducts local surveys among 2,000 retail clients on their sustainability preferences. 200 mystery shopping visits provide the potential to audit marketing practices and to review product offers. Furthermore, 2DII provides the online retail platform MyFairMoney for the Czech and Greek market to support retail clients and financial advisors. To ensure continuity, the project organises a total of 24 events where results are disseminated with local stakeholders.
Project information
Updated: April 2021
Countries: Czech Republic, Greece
Project duration: 10/20 - 09/22
Funding: 478,942 €
Target groups: Civil Society, Governments, Private sector
Implementing organisation: 2° Investing Initiative
Partners: Czech Consumer Association, WWF Greece
Contact Person:
Mr Nicola Koch
Organisation:
2 Degrees Investing Initiative
Address:
2 rue Dieu
75010 Paris
France
EUKI
The European Climate Initiative (EUKI):
Potsdamer Platz 10,
10117 Berlin – Deutschland
Tel.: +49 (0)30 338424 570
info∂euki.de
The European Climate Initiative (EUKI):
This project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). EUKI is a project financing instrument by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The EUKI competition for project ideas is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is the overarching goal of the EUKI to foster climate cooperation within the European Union (EU) in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
For more information on the EUKI: www.euki.de