Published the Legal Notebook No. 28 "The Mapping of Financial Products in the Perspective of Saver Protection" edited by Filippo Annunziata (Bocconi University of Milan), Alberto Lupoi (University of Padua), Dario Colonnello (Consob Legal Studies Office) and with a foreword by Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore).

The European Mifid2 directive on the provision of investment services has strengthened a number of safeguards to protect savers who subscribe to financial instruments through licensed intermediaries, such as the rules on suitability and appropriateness, and introduced product governance regulations. Despite the efforts made, there still remain some areas for improvement, such as, for example: the management of the risk of conflicts of interest that occur when issuers of financial products aimed at savers are also distributors; controls on the "mapping" activity of financial products, when this activity is entrusted by investment firms to third parties without adequate organizational safeguards; and application uncertainties on the rules governing the profiling of financial products, with the possible effect of uneven protection of savers in the European Union.

These are some of the critical elements on the issue of mis-selling of financial products to retail customers that emerge from Consob's latest Legal Notebook on "The Mapping of Financial Products from the Perspective of Saver Protection." The study, which aims to contribute to the debate on European regulation, starts from the observation that - in order for the suitability rule to function properly by minimizing the risks of mis-selling - it is necessary that the customer profiling carried out through the "Mifid questionnaire" be accompanied by adequate mapping of financial products. The current regulatory framework, however, instead remains focused on customer profiling of investment services, entrusting the mapping of financial products to the diligence of the intermediaries themselves.

This is not just an Italian problem, which also affects other EU member countries.

In an evolutionary key, to improve the application of the suitability rule, the study suggests creating a standardized set of financial product profiling data and information at the European level, for later sharing in the European Single Access Point (Esap) platform, to which Esma will provide centralized electronic access from December 31, 2024. Other suggestions include the use of artificial intelligence for determining and sharing profiling data and information, minimizing costs for firms.