Proposal for Amendments to the Investor Compensation Scheme Dir

On the 12th July 2010, Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, presented a Proposal that aims at harmonising the law and introduce a number of wide-ranging amendments to the Investor Compensation Scheme Directive.Due to the fact that ten years had passed since the enactment of the original Directive in addition to the financial crisis incident, some aspects of the Directive needed to be reconsidered, even though the Commission stated that “there is no concrete evidence to suggest that the financial crisis contributed to more compensation claims from schemes under the ICSD.”In fact, some of the amendments were drawn up as a result of complaints received by the Commission relating to the application of the Directive. This was principally in relation to the insufficient level of funding of schemes and delays in obtaining compensation. Therefore, the aim of the proposed amendments is to increase investor confidence and protection throughout the EU.