This issue of the European Business Organization Law Review is devoted to fundamental problems in the field of retail financial services as have become particularly clear since the recent disruption of the financial markets. Ultimately, these issues lead to line-drawing problems and policy choices about investor and consumer protection which are tackled from a legal and an economic perspective respectively. The articles in this issue have originated from papers and proceedings of the joint IMFS (Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability) and LEMF (Doctorate/PhD Program ‘Law and Economics of Money and Finance’) conference on ‘Retail Financial Services after the Crisis: Legal and Economic Perspectives on Investor and Consumer Protection’, which took place at the House of Finance, Goethe University of Frankfurt on 20 and 21 January 2012.