Euronext Annual Conference 2025: "Building the Savings and Investments Union for real"
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm delighted to be able to speak to you about an important topic, at a particularly important time.
Not only at a pivotal time for Europe, but also for Euronext, as you celebrate your 25th anniversary.
Today you have discussed many of the critical issues that Europe must manage in order to rebound and regain its competitiveness.
It is a critically important time for Europe and for the European economy. And you are asking the right questions.
Today you've touched on various important themes, including on Europe's equity culture, on integrating capital markets, and on the role that capital markets can play in financing our political priorities.
These aspects, and the interests of our citizens, are at the core of my vision for the Savings and Investments Union.
I think you all know very well the “why” of the Savings and Investments Union.
It's actually quite simple.
There is a mismatch in Europe between savings and investments. In particular, savers too often earn a low return on their savings, whereas there is so much more potential. At the same time many companies struggle to find suitable financing to grow and scale up.
Essentially, we need better access to capital markets and better opportunities for European citizens, and we need also better funding opportunities for European companies.
So far, Europe hasn't been able to efficiently bring them together.
The challenge lies in determining how we will achieve it.
Right now, our financial ecosystem lacks efficiency and is not positioned to take Europe's economy to the next level.
To change this, we must systematically dismantle existing barriers.
And there are many, though today I want to focus on two.
We have worked a lot on our single rulebook in the financial services area since the great financial crisis.
Still, this has not yet yielded the expected integration results, and regulatory barriers are often cited as a reason. We must ask ourselves why.
Is it because there are relevant areas where harmonisation has not been achieved?
Is it because harmonised rules are still not implemented properly across Member States?
Is there maybe an issue with the way we devise rules through our multiple regulatory levels?
Or because when these rules are implemented, the problem they were trying to address is no longer the same?
Doing business in Europe should not be more difficult than in other jurisdictions.
We have a Single Market in theory, but in practice, firms and citizens cannot fully reap the benefits.
This affects investors who are seeking opportunities throughout the EU, companies seeking finance, and it is particularly discouraging for smaller firms - the very ones we need to support in their development.
In essence, we're holding ourselves back.
Many of the areas from which such barriers are stemming, including civil, company, and labour law, largely differ throughout Member States. And some of these laws are pre-conditions for efficient and functional markets.
Furthermore, many of the harmonised rules we have are still applied differently across Member States or even gold-plated.
Many of the harmonised rules have become probably so detailed that their objectives are no longer clear.
This shows the layer of complexity, to which we are responding with concrete simplification actions.
And it emphasises the need for self-assessment and change from all actors within the regulatory ecosystem that makes up our Single Market.
Action is needed at both the EU and national levels to reduce barriers and make use of the full potential of the single market.
All policymakers have recognised the need for a more competitive European economy.
We now need to see action to achieve our shared European objectives. To deliver simplification and simplicity, we need your support.
The second barrier that I want to speak about relates to market depth and liquidity.
In Europe, we need to cultivate deeper, more liquid markets.
If we want to see investment moving seamlessly throughout Europe - and into the companies that will bring Europe to the next level - we need more investment opportunities, and we need simpler ways of investing.
Investors have a choice in where they allocate their funds, and indeed, money follows the path of least resistance.
Our goal must be to make investing in Europe the obvious choice, by offering attractive opportunities, competitive returns and low barriers.
Currently, many Europeans are investing abroad, and many promising European companies are opting to go public in other jurisdictions.
We cannot fault them for identifying better alternatives, but this trend represents a net loss for Europe.
Many companies who start out in Europe end up achieving their potential elsewhere.
This does not benefit the development of European markets.
There is much we can do to remedy this, including increasing our investor base, but also by improving how our market functions.
Currently, trading is fragmented throughout Europe.
Stock exchanges have always aimed to connect companies seeking capital with investors.
There are multiple national exchanges and trading venues across Member States, and local presence is important for making such connection.
However, we also have to be realistic and acknowledge that the fragmentation existing in EU's trading landscape prevents scale and depth, disperses liquidity, affects costs and limits accessibility.
And this makes it harder for investors to tap broader investment opportunities and for European businesses to access deeper pools of capital.
This is one of the reasons why European companies leave Europe to list elsewhere.
In recent years, the Commission has made efforts to make Europe a more attractive place to list.
For example, the EU's Listing Act aimed to create a listing ecosystem that makes it attractive, affordable, and rewarding for companies to list their securities on EU public markets.
The Listing Act:
- reduces pre and post listing disclosures,
- makes it easy for companies to raise new capital once listed,
- supports investment research, and,
- through allowing multiple vote shares, it allows founders to choose the most suitable corporate structure for the listed company.
The Commission services are currently working with ESMA on the level two measures to ensure the successful implementation of the Listing Act. And we will do it the simplest possible way.
Another major achievement in recent years was the review of the MIFIR regulation, which aims to strengthen and harmonise EU financial markets.
The agreed rules entered into force in March 2024 and create the conditions for a consolidated tape to emerge.
A European consolidated tape will bring our market forward and will close the gap with our international peers.
It will give investors an integrated view of the European market.
ESMA is at work to select a bond tape provider. The selection of the equity tape and the derivatives tape providers will follow.
Work must also continue on the market participants' side to ensure smooth implementation at the time when the tapes go live.
Giving investors an integrated view of the different trading venues is a necessary step, but alone it is not sufficient to solve the issues that exist in the market due to the ingrained fragmentation.
Post-trade is also crucially important in this view.
The role that post-trade infrastructures play in our system ensures that our market functions in a safe and efficient manner.
We currently have 26 central securities depositories, and 14 central counterparties.
Many of these are part of pan-European corporate groups.
In contrast to CCPs, which typically specialise in the clearing of specific instruments, CSDs tend to serve domestic markets.
The three largest CSD groups comprise 12 EU CSDs. They represent approximately 96 percent of European CSD settlement activity and 93 percent of assets under custody.
Despite the consolidation in ownership, many of these infrastructures maintain their domestic scope, including in terms of technical systems.
Further market-driven consolidation of post-trade market infrastructures and integration of existing systems has been hampered by the existence of a number of barriers.
These barriers can be legal, supervisory, or market-practice related.
The Commission is working on fully identifying all these barriers to market-driven consolidation and how to overcome them.
An ongoing study will help to provide insights on some of the key issues and come forward with concrete proposals to address them.
Additionally, we are exploring the potential of novel technologies like distributed ledger technology to enhance safety, efficiency, and address fragmentation in the post-trade landscape.
That being said, one of the Commission's key objectives is to reduce fragmentation in post-trade processes.
Achieving this will support the creation of a frictionless and competitive EU single market. A more efficient one.
By reducing costs, and enhancing efficiency, we aim to attract more issuers and investors to our markets.
This can truly bring more liquidity to Europe's capital market.
In the Commission, we believe that consolidation in the trade and post-trade space should be market driven, and this can take many forms.
The story of Euronext, with its federal model, is a good example.
I have addressed some of the most significant barriers to the free flow of capital in our European financial ecosystem.
I'd now like to touch upon an area that I believe is often left out of these discussions.
That is of Europe's investment culture or investment practices.
It is all well and good to work towards a more efficient market, but we also need the investors if we want to complete the equation.
We need to spark an equity investment behaviour in Europe, including among retail investors.
Europeans are great savers.
Though the fact is that this money is often left in low yield deposit accounts to an economic cost to the broader economy.
And while this is certainly True, I prefer to see this economic cost as a missed opportunity for Europeans to grow their household wealth.
By turning savings into productive investments, we not only prepare better for life's big moments, like retirement, but also fuel European innovation and competitiveness.
So how can we make this switch?
I see two obvious ways forward.
The first is through financial education.
When it comes to finance, knowledge is power.
In Europe financial literacy rates are too low.
We need to guarantee that more is done for all Europeans to ensure that they have the confidence to take control of their finances, and in doing so, their future.
It will be essential to drive progress on financial literacy.
Retail investors have a huge part to play in the Savings and Investments Union. And boosting financial literacy is part of this plan.
Secondly, we need to see more and better opportunities for European citizens to invest in capital markets.
This means that we need easy, simple, and low-cost access to investment opportunities.
It also means that citizens should have the right incentives to put their money to work, including tax incentives.
Investing in Europe should be an obvious choice for Europeans.
Before I close, I want to take a moment to recognise the people in the room today.
We have representatives from sectors that will be important to achieving the success of the Savings and Investments Union.
Securities exchanges, banks, investment firms, insurers, and representatives from key sectors of industry.
You are all a critical part of the plan for the Savings and Investments Union.
We have consulted widely on this plan, and I believe you will find it to be oriented in the right direction, where both citizens and businesses will benefit.
But our strategy is only the first step.
Your buy-in is a must-have for us to succeed.
So, my message to you today is clear: support this plan, embrace its potential, and let's unite our efforts to create lasting value for our citizens and businesses.
Together, we can lay the foundations for a more prosperous and resilient future, not just for today, but for generations of Europeans to come.
The path forward is in our hands, let's seize this opportunity to build a stronger, more sustainable European economy.
Thank you.
| Zařazeno | út 18.03.2025 19:03:00 |
|---|---|
| Zdroj | Evropská komise en |
| Originál | ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/documents?reference=SPEECH/25/822&language=en |
| lang | en |
| guid | /SPEECH/25/822/ |
