‘Commission ban’ – this irritant word which is a red flag in the financial industry – was only in a draft for the retail investor strategy. Under massive pressure from the lobby and probably also after intervention from the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the proposal that the Commission intends to adopt today no longer provides for an attack on the remuneration model that is still common in Germany and so popular in the industry. And yet the strategy will not be applauded either by the industry or by consumer advocates, as my colleague Christof Roche has learned.