How EU fund rules leave gaps in investor protection

Pietro Maffi routinely checks his financial statements and has a good understanding of how his savings are being managed. Maffi, a software engineer from the northern town of Pavia, invests in funds managed by Banca Mediolanum , an Italian bank. What he didn't know until recently was that the fund uses a fee structure that is not allowed in Italy, and is out of line even with Ireland's own investor protection guidelines, which are non-binding.