A resolution to reduce income inequality and increase basic welfare.
Category: Social Justice | Strength: Mild | Proposed by: Charlotte Ryberg
Description:The World Assembly,
UNDERSTANDING that many people trust a financial institution to safeguard and enhance the value of their investments;
WORRIED that certain financial institutions may take advantage of this situation to make unfair gains at the expense of the investor;
SEEKING to tackle investment fraud and increase the confidence of entrusting investments with financial institutions;
Defines for the purpose of this resolution:
• Financial institution: An institution that accepts and manages deposits or savings and/or provides investment or pension funds for its clients or members;
• Investment fraud: A crime in which the perpetrator uses false information or speculation to lure victim(s) into parting with their money for the perpetrator's gain and at the victim's loss;
• Pyramid scheme: An unsustainable business model where the exchange of money takes place when investors recruit people into the scheme, without any product or service being delivered and where separate investors are paid returns from either their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than the profit earned.
Therefore,
1. OUTLAWS pyramid schemes and investment fraud in all member states and demands all member states to help in bringing perpetrators of investment fraud are brought to justice.
2. MANDATES that financial institutions in member states must regularly publish audited financial reports about its activities and current financial situation.
3. URGES all financial institutions in member states to comply with the following code of conduct:
a) All advertising and promotional literature must have clear information about their products and services and must not be misleading;
b) Clear information about their products and services, how they work, their terms of service and interest rates must be publicly available;
c) Financial institutions must commit to support their customers by providing regular balance statements (where applicable) and inform them of changes to interest rates, charges or terms and conditions;
d) Financial institutions must not tie-in their customers and should help customers that have moved their account(s) from another institution;
e) The issue of credit and loans must be done responsibly;
f) Complaints and assistance by members must be honoured in a just, timely and non-discriminatory manner.
g) All personal information held by financial institutions must be private and confidential; payment/dispensing systems they operate must be secure and reliable; personal information may only be available to the person itself and the government of member states in the interests of investigating criminal activity.
4. URGES member states to legally disqualify persons convicted of investment fraud from acting as, without judicial permission: a director, secretary or liquidator of a company; a receiver or manager of a company's property or in any position, whether directly or indirectly, being concerned or taking part in the promotion, formation or management of a company.
5. ENCOURAGES member states to:
• Compensate (where possible) victims of investment fraud and collapsed pyramid schemes by seizing the assets of the perpetrators convicted of investment fraud;
• Set up a reserve fund to protect part or all of the client's savings in case a financial institution collapses.
Comments, criticism and expansions requested.