8. Financial Consumers and Applicable Remedies: A European and Italian Framework

In Europe, general legislation requires protection of the economic interests of consumers. This includes, for instance, the consumer protection from financial services, misleading advertising and unfair contract terms. However, only after the global financial crisis, the European Union (EU) has become aware of the lack of transparency, poor handling of conflicts of interest, over-indebtedness, and low awareness of risks of the consumers in dealing with financial services. This paper aims to investigate the financial knowledge and overconfidence in Europe, and to provide an overview of consumer protection policy in EU. Here, it will be analyzed the EU regulatory framework, whose aim is to ensure the stability of the financial markets and to establish specific and common rules for banks and investments companies among the Member States. Furthermore, it deals with protections of financial consumers in the Italian legislation and within a European context. It concludes providing the Italian financial system as best example of crisis management and resolution, by providing out-of-court settlements, collective redress and crisis management procedures, with the aims to establish a systemic stability and financial consumers’ confidence in the bank system.