OpenLobby.EU
Explore

Trade Republic Bank GmbH

Trade Republic

Trade Republic is Europe's largest savings platform.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Tatyana Panova (Head of Unit Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union)

22 May 2025 · SIU - Targeted Consultation on capital market integration

Meeting with Michael Hager (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

19 Dec 2023 · Retail Investments, CMU.

Meeting with Gilles Boyer (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Oct 2022 · MiFIR

Response to Retail Investment Package

31 May 2022

As a pan-European financial services provider Trade Republic Bank GmbH welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Call for Evidence and would like to raise the following points the European Commission attention: We strongly agree with the Commission’s assessment that the level of retail investor participation in EU capital markets remains low despite high individual savings rates in Europe. Although there has been a rise of consumers investing in capital markets in the last two years, this growth is not sufficient to democratize wealth and close looming pension gaps. As Trade Republic is serving >1.000.000 retail investors (as of May 2021) in six EU jurisdictions, we see everyday that cross border offering of retail investment services is seriously hampered by too many national requirements. In consequence, there is only limited competition in Europe which in turn results in less efficient retail investment markets. This prevents better services and lower costs for retail investors. European investment regulation needs to be more effective and more efficient. The rising granularity of European legislation has become an obstacle for offering affordable investment services to retail clients. As a consequence the initiative should identify existing rules that have not been proven valuable and abolish them. And this also applies to new regulations: We still see a vast wave of more detailed rules coming in. Those changes aim solely at further increasing investor protections standards and building up new obstacles. Cutting back the red tape almost never happens. And if so, like with the MiFID II Quick Fix, the simplifications of existing rules are more or less insignificant. When reworking the regulatory framework the EU legislator should be aware that a big share of new investors were acquired by new investment firms like Trade Republic. The main reasons for that success are low costs for investors and an intuitive user interface that reduces complexity. Regulation that increases costs for investors and adds complexity will very likely reduce retail participation in EU capital markets. Low total trading cost for retail investors depends on low explicit (fees) and implicit (spreads) costs. Low explicit costs are achieved via efficient infrastructure, including only a limited number of partners. Low implicit costs are tied to highly efficient execution venues. Efficient execution venues understand order flows as a valuable good and are willing to price them accordingly (PFOF). Investment firms use those payments to decrease the overall costs for investors and finance the continuous improvement of its services. The European legislator should make clear that inducements such as PFOF are allowed, as long as they are utilized to reduce explicit costs for investors and full cost transparency is guaranteed. We see an urgent need for regulatory clarity and guidance with respect to crypto-assets. Given its high volatility in conjunction with the increased retail interest in investing in such assets, it will be prudent to issue interim measures until MiCA enters into force. Ideally such measures should also be harmonized to avoid regulatory arbitrage, while ensuring investor protection and provide a level playing field for licensed/registered crypto-assets services providers. There is a direct correlation between financial literacy and the level of retail clients’ participation in the capital market. Such initiatives should be driven on a governmental level and endorsed by the industry. Additionally, well informed retail investors will in the long run make better investment decisions.
Read full response

Meeting with Danuta Maria Hübner (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

2 Mar 2022 · MiFIR Review

Meeting with Florian Denis (Cabinet of Commissioner Mairead Mcguinness), Nicolo Brignoli (Cabinet of Commissioner Mairead Mcguinness)

22 Feb 2022 · Retail investment strategy