European Commissioner for Financial Services Mairead McGuinness gave an update on the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project on Wednesday 6 April in Frankfurt as part of a conference on European financial integration that has been co-organised by the ECB and the European Commission.
“A more financially integrated European Union means that companies have more opportunities to get funding, from a variety of sources. (...) And of course for consumers, there is greater access to more products and services from different providers”, she emphasised at the outset.
Brexit, she noted, has brought about a new European financial landscape, with a “multi-hub” structure replacing a system focussed on just one city. The European seats of many financial companies have moved to Paris, Luxembourg, Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid or Milan, depending on their financial specialisation.
According to Ms McGuinness, the CMU involves building up key financial infrastructures within the EU, in particular clearing houses (see EUROPE 12925/22). And financial stability will be permitted under EU-specific regulations.
“A genuine CMU will help FinTechs to raise the capital they need to grow and scale up their activities within the single market”, McGuinness said. According to her, the CMU project “goes hand in hand with the European Commission’s Digital Finance Strategy”.
After noting the steps already taken, the European Commissioner set out the Commission’s future work. She announced that a report on the functioning of the European Supervisory Authority will be presented in the coming months. The report will also assess the need for further harmonisation of rules at EU level, as well as the progress that has been made in the convergence of national supervisory practices.
By “2024, I want to see tangible progress in the integration of our European capital markets”, she said. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)