How To Protect Investors

As governments around the world withdraw from welfare provision and promote long-term savings by households through the financial markets, the protection of retail investors has become critically important. Taking as a case study the wide-ranging EC investor-protection regime which now governs EC retail markets after an intense reform period, this critical, contextual and comparative examination of the nature of investor protection explores why the retail investor should be protected, whether retail investor engagement with the markets should be encouraged and how investor protection laws should be designed, particularly in light of the financial crisis. The book considers the implications of the EC's investor protection rules 'on the books' but also considers investor protection law and policy 'in action', drawing on experience from the UK retail market and in particular the Financial Services Authority's extensive retail market activities, including the recent Retail Distribution Review and the Treating Customers Fairly strategy.

A critical, comparative and contextual examination of how to protect retail or household investors which considers the financial crisis's implications.

This comprehensive book offers a rigorous analysis of the legal debates, approaches and practice-related issues surrounding financial advice and investor protection. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of financial inclusion more broadly construed, recent financial crises have highlighted deficits in retail investor protection – this book informs the development of robust yet adaptable frameworks to protect investors, including effective enforcement and dispute resolution.