Le profilage des investisseurs individuels en Belgique couvre-t-il correctement les dimensions adéquates ?

Abstract

[En] Individuals are unique and influenced by many factors. In order to be able to provide an individual investor with a suitable advice or a suitable financial instrument, the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), adopted in 2004, requires investment companies to collect many pieces of information about those individual investors. However, a strengthened version of MiFID, MiFID II, will be implemented on the 3rd of January 2018. Indeed, the financial crisis of 2008 and the evolution of financial markets spotlighted the need to strengthen MiFID. As MiFID II will set higher standards of individual investors’ protection, this thesis aims at taking stock of the current pieces of information collected and of the profiling methods used by private bankers in Belgium in order to assign an investment profile to an individual investor right before the implementation of the new directive. After having described the factors influencing the investment decision process of individuals, I described the three dimensions a suitable advice needs to cover (financial capacity, knowledge and experience and investment objectives) according to the requirements of MiFID and MiFID II and according to the guidelines of the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) and of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Then I established an assessment grid based on those requirements and guidelines in order to assess the standardized questionnaires used by the eight banks constituting my sample. I used two different rating methods in order to assess those questionnaires. I also conducted eight interviews with private bankers of each of those banks in order to compare their profiling methods with the theoretical part of my thesis. The results of my analysis showed that the current profiling methods and standardized questionnaires used by the banks constituting my sample do cover correctly the three dimensions. Indeed, the pieces of information that are not collected though the questionnaires are gathered though the conversation the private banker and their client have. However, a bigger sample would be needed in order to assess the situation on a national level. In addition to that, I noticed some weaknesses in the private bankers’ understanding and knowledge of behavioural biases which impact on the investment decision process of individual investors could be significant.