Requests for mediation received by the stock market regulator remain high

Cases filed with the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) mediator remained at a high level in 2022, with an increase in complaints about capital savings plans (PEAs) and employee savings. This body of authority, which intervenes free of charge to find a friendly solution in the context of financial disputes (excluding banking, insurance or tax disputes), received a total of 1,900 files last year, according to a report presented this Thursday.

Although the increase in one year is weak (+3%, after +33% between 2020 and 2021), the level of referrals received remains high, with around 500 more files than before the health crisis.

To “reduce the accumulated stock (of applications), we processed 12% more files and gave +30% additional opinions”, to reach a record number of files processed and closed during the year 2022, said mediator Marielle Cohen- Branche during a press conference. instructions.

More than half of favorable recommendations to applicants

The Equity Savings Plan (PEA), popular with retail investors, tops the list of disputes, with applications up 10% after more than doubling in 2021. Two-thirds of cases concern the time of transfer of a plan when changing institutions. In addition to the incomplete requests of the holders or the “complexity” of certain portfolios that can lengthen the terms, the mediator also points out that “there is no dematerialization of transfers (from PEAs), everything is done by hand, so imagine the risk” . of errors”.

Second reason, employee savings, “is up again after two years of decline”, and with complaints related to “most of the time requests for early release of funds, mainly for the acquisition or expansion of the habitual residence”. Stock market orders continue, with complaints emanating “very often from novice investors unfamiliar with stock market fundamentals,” and cryptocurrency-related disputes affecting 54 cases in 2022 (including 17 admissible ).

In the end, 54% of the recommendations of the Mediation were favorable (partially and totally) to the plaintiffs, and it registered “only 4% of controversies, which is very low, the main mission of the mediator, which is not to go to trial is fulfilled”, summed up Marielle Cohen-Branche.