On Monday 9 March, Spain’s Minister of the Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, presented to his European counterparts the progress made by the ‘European Competitiveness Laboratory’, launched in March 2024 by a coalition of willing EU countries seeking to accelerate the integration of capital markets.
The creation of a European securitisation platform is the latest major initiative supported by eight of them (Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) and is intended to complement the European Commission’s legislative proposal (see EUROPE 13777/24).
There are three objectives: - expand the number of issuers of securitised securities and countries with access to the market; - develop a broader pan-European investor base; - encourage cross-border securitisations.
“Standardising processes would enable smaller entities to achieve the economies of scale needed to access the market, thereby improving the financing available to SMEs”, said the Spanish Ministry of the Economy in a press release.
A public-private technical team now needs to be set up to define the design of the platform, and an initial pilot project could be presented in the autumn.
Other initiatives under consideration include the development of a common rating methodology for SMEs and European financial education programmes. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)