Retail Finance: Thoughts on Reshaping Regulation and Consumer Protection after the Financial Crisis

The sale of retail financial products, such as investment funds but also mortgage products, is frequently combined with the provision of advice, which opens up the possibility of unsuitable advice and misselling. The article argues that despite recent legal changes in Europe, such as MiFID, there is still much scope for the improvement of both legal norms and supervisory activity. To obtain a logically consistent and workable framework, consumer protection, both generally and applied to the field of retail finance, must be put on a sound economic basis.