Prospectus for securities

Key points:

The EESC:

• calls for a solution to be found to information asymmetries, to reduce the cost of raising capital and the risk premium, thus increasing competitiveness among European businesses;
• stresses that the considerable cost saving to be derived by not updating the prospectus so often must not be achieved to the detriment of the quality of the information disclosed – otherwise the initiative would be counterproductive;
• points out the danger that the need to make the information available to non-expert investors might prevent them being given all the facts they need to choose investments, which inevitably have to include technical details;
• proposes, therefore, that creation of an "information intermediaries" market be encouraged, separate from the market of more conventional capital and risk intermediaries markets (usually: banks, management companies, brokers specialising in derivatives, etc.), in the light of experience gained in other countries.