The worst of the liquidity crisis is over, according to Inverco

Only 0,016% of the funds' assets have been directly affected by exposure to assets

The worst of the liquidity crisis affecting global financial markets "is over" and the lack of investor confidence seems to be "fading," although we have to wait for the publication of the financial institutions' results for the last quarter of 2007 to be sure.

This was explained today to EFE by the general director of the Association of Collective Investment Institutions and Pension Funds (INVERCO), Angel Martínez-Aldama, who spoke at the XI International Congress of Investment Funds, which will bring together the main experts of the sector until Wednesday.

According to Martínez-Aldama, only 0,016 percent of the funds' assets - which amounted to 343.681 million euros in Spain at the end of September - have been directly affected by exposure to "subprime" assets.

However, it should not be forgotten that the funds have indirectly suffered from the liquidity crisis in the interbank markets due to the lack of confidence in credit institutions, but "the worst is over," although we will still see some tension in the markets for several more weeks, he explained.

For her part, María Dolores Montesinos, a Spanish representative of the new asset management unit of the Directorate-General for Internal Market and Financial Services of the European Union (EU), expressed her confidence that the European Commission will be able to finalize the legislative proposal for the reform of the UCITS directive, which regulates the European market for investment funds, by the end of January.

If this timetable is met, that is, "if there is a political agreement," he explained, the reform could be ready by the end of 2008, and if not, it will be difficult to do it within the current legislature, because the European Parliament is dissolved in May 2009, he explained.

On the other hand, the investment director of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), María José Gómez Yubero, stated that the recent turbulence in the financial markets has highlighted the need to improve investors' financial literacy, so that they are better aware of the risks involved in their investments and can manage them.

This will be achieved with the upcoming implementation of MiFID, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, which bases investor protection on a new framework for relationships with financial institutions, improving the quality of the information available to them and their ability to understand it, he explained.

To achieve this, the CNMV is acting around four lines of work: improving the quality and accessibility of the information that investors receive, financial advertising, the management of complaints and queries and the improvement of financial information for consumers, he explained.

According to a survey conducted by the Collective Investment Institute of the United States, which can be extrapolated to the Spanish case, he said, when buying an investment fund, 66% of investors in that country did not consult the prospectus that explains the characteristics of the product, and 60% believe that the information available is "difficult or very difficult to understand".

Now, "after the failure of the simplified prospectus," the European Commission is working on a document, the Key Investors Information, with the aim of actually informing investors clearly, concisely, and relevantly about these products.

Yesterday, the European Committee of Securities Market Regulators, the César Committee, approved putting out for consultation a document being prepared at the request of the European Commission on the requirements that the aforementioned Key Investors Information must meet, and contributions can be made until December 17, he announced.