Mesdames, Messieurs, bonjour,
Je suis ravie de participer à la réunion de votre conseil dadministration aujourdhui et de partager avec vous ce que je considère être notre vision commune du futur des marchés financiers européens.
Paris-Europlace is a bridge between the French financial and economic landscape and the EU one. Your dedication to a more resilient and competitive Europe is a commitment that the Commission both recognises and appreciates.
My vision of a strong financial system in Europe depends on centres of excellence throughout the Union. Here in Paris, I see a thriving financial centre that is European in nature. This gives me great hope for the road ahead.
Before we get to our discussion today, I have been asked to deliver a few short remarks.
Ladies and gentlemen, public policy and the real economy do not exist in isolation. Often, we see that what happens in business affects politics, and what happens in politics affects business.
At the moment, it is often the latter.
Having spent time in the corporate world myself, I understand well how political uncertainty can impact your decisions, your strategy, and your ability to manage risk.
And while you can hedge against many risks, it becomes much more difficult when you cannot anticipate what is coming around the next corner.
In Europe, we are working to remedy this.
As President von der Leyen mentioned last week in Davos, we are building a new form of European independence.
This means a more agile European Union, one that remains unflinching in the face of short-term volatility and is capable of acting, always, from a position of strength and resilience.
As you will be aware, finance plays a significant role in this endeavour – and our Savings and Investments Union is where it begins.
Since the Commission approved my plan for the SIU in March last year, my services and I have been working hard to put proposals on the table, including on securitisation, financial literacy, savings and investments accounts, supplementary pensions, and on market integration and supervision.
There is still more to come this year, notably targeting venture and growth fund managers –we have recently published a consultation on this topic – as well as an important report on the competitiveness of European banks, which we will publish later in the year.
I know that our work on securitisation is of great importance to you and your members.
Our proposal turns securitisation into an engine for investment by expanding lending to households and businesses while strengthening Europes capital markets at the same time.
Through a more simplified framework, lower due diligence and transparency costs, it introduces greater risk sensitivity, while maintaining all core safeguards and enhancing supervisory convergence.
Together, these changes aim to revitalise the EU securitisation market.
I was happy to see that the Council quickly reached their position on the file, preserving all essential elements of our proposal. I am looking forward to progress on the European Parliaments side.
Once agreement is reached, it will be time for you to make good use of it.
I trust you will reinforce investments in our companies and in making the European economy more robust and independent. Just enacting the framework is not enough. You need to put it into action.
Ladies and gentlemen, promoting an equity investment culture in Europe will be critical in any effort to grow and strengthen our economy.
It is not going to happen overnight, and it will require a sustained effort from everyone involved, Member states, EU institutions, and industry.
I want to see our citizens grow their wealth, and we need to make it easier for them to do so.
Our Retail Investment Strategy, which was agreed upon by co-legislators before Christmas, has been designed with this objective in mind.
It aims to streamline the investor journey and empower citizens to invest more confidently, by improving disclosures and ensuring that the products they are offered deliver value for money.
This recent agreement is an important component of the SIU and will strengthen consumer confidence and trust in financial products.
Ease of access to capital markets will require new and innovative financial products. 8 out of 10 Europeans use digital technology to manage their finances, so it makes sense that they would be more engaged with better digital offerings.
Our proposed rules on Financial Data Access, or FIDA, can unleash open finance in the EU. This provides an opportunity for EU consumers to get access to more innovative and personalised financial products, and an opportunity to strengthen our financial industrys competitive edge.
Yes, there would be costs upfront, but I would point to the significant opportunity for value creation – which would certainly outweigh any initial costs. These are investments on modernisation and digitalisation – that will benefit your business in the end.
Bringing more retail investors into the market is essential, and that means making participation genuinely attractive, simple and worthwhile. In the end, two things will decide whether people engage. Trust and access.
If people trust the system, and if they can access it with ease, capital will flow, and Europe will be stronger for it.
I may be preaching to the choir when speaking about the need for a more integrated and vibrant European market for capital, but I want to emphasise the importance of our most recent package on market integration.
In 2024, the total market capitalisation of EU trading venues was 73 percent of EU GDP. By comparison, the US had a market capitalisation of 270 percent of GDP, with figures surpassing 130 percent of GDP in the UK.
It is not as easy as it could be to do business across the EU – as corporate leaders with business throughout the Union, you know this better than most.
Our settlement infrastructure in Europe is complex, and costly – again, much more so than in the US.
Asset management in the EU is also highly fragmented, with limited cross-border activities and results in a large number of small funds, when what we need in the European fund sector is scale.
In designing our SIU proposals, and through significant consultation with stakeholders, our logic was simple: identify the barriers and remove them.
We have heard significant frustrations about gold-plating and inconsistent national rules, so we are moving key requirements from Directives to Regulation, removing administrative hurdles, promoting cross border operations, fostering innovative technologies, and ensuring supervision is more efficient throughout the Union.
By the end of 2026, the Commission will prepare a report to build a holistic, unbiased and extensive overview of what is preventing a true Single Market in banking, and, subsequently, to propose a positive and forward-looking banking reform agenda that caters for the specific needs of European markets and European players.
The report will evaluate the EU banking sectors competitiveness, identifying the key issues affecting it, and assessing remaining market fragmentation within the Single banking Market .
We are looking into a broad spectrum of issues relating to micro and macro prudential regulation and supervision, crisis management, governance, digitalisation and technological developments, proportionality and diversity of the banking sector, banks provision of services, their capacity to finance innovation and the digital and green transitions, among many others.
I spoke about the need to manage risks at the beginning of my remarks. The main avenue to manage risks is diversification. In Europe, we are actively finding new partners around the world, while also strengthening our own strategic capabilities.
Our search for strategic autonomy does not mean retreating into ourselves but broadening our global horizons.
We are securing Europes future by investing in the sectors that define it, including clean energy, technological transition, AI, semiconductors, and defence. However, none of this will happen without the right financing conditions. SIU is an enabler for that.
Thank you for your attention.