Small shareholder as consumers:
The new concept of saver – investor, legal protection in Europe and the rules of participation and representation.

Over the last years millions of Europeans have invested in the stock market (more than three million of them are Spaniards), and we should also include stock exchange shares through investment funds.

This fact, which has changed the elitist and traditional view of the stock market, is due to the search of an acceptable profitability of savings, and to the aggressive campaigns launched by governments to make us buy shares of state companies made partially private. However, consumers still don’t have the proper financial “education” needed.

Despite the European and Spanish regulations about investment services and the stock market, there is still not enough protection for consumers. Banks and investment agencies do not show enough transparency as in the rest of financial services, because contracts are just a legal cover managers use to justify any circumstance in their favour. Besides, commission charges are not controlled and this affects consumers.

The answer to these problems is the increase of the financial culture and the way consumers organise as small shareholders so that they can claim their rights.