Eloise Horsfield
EXPATS could benefit from new measures being introduced by Spain’s financial regulator (CNMV) to limit the sale of certain investment products.
The move is aimed at offering greater protection to small investors who get into financial difficulty after being badly advised about the suitability of certain products.
Under the new rules, financial advisors will be obliged to provide a ‘clear description’, signed and in writing, of how each client can meet their objectives and what investments are most appropriate.
When products are sold, customers will be provided with a signed document evaluating the investment – and in the absence of sufficient information this should be laid out clearly.
What’s more, the CNMV proposes a register of customers and unsuitable products ‘to prevent products being offered that have previously been evaluated with negative results’.
The news will be welcomed by the many expat investors who claim to have lost thousands after receiving dodgy advice from unregulated advisors.
In June, a dozen expats joined forces to take legal action after they claimed they were mis-sold by David Driver, boss of Offshore Investment Brokers (OIB).
Mijas-based investor Paul O’Connell, 55, was advised by Driver to take out a €260,000 10-year loan secured against the value of his property – but the investment failed to deliver the returns he had promised.
Driver has since fled to the UK.
Another chocolate fire-guard….
Agreed Stefanjo. It’s all blah blah. CNMV dont care about investors who contribute nothing to local coffers in the way of tax on gains. Also, Driver will get away with it. Always has. This is his second separate decade of harming people. First one was in the Gulf. Third one will be back in the Gulf now working for ATSG funds selling failing bonds to unsuspecting, flush ex-pats. Repeat, Driver will get away with it simply because he can move countries at the drop of a hat and people are too embarrassed to admit they were duped. He also pretends to be broke…