The European Federation of Financial Analysts (EFFAS) and the German Association of Financial Analysts and Asset Managers (DVFA) jointly organised an international capital markets forum on the topic of “European Capital Markets Union – Dream, Illusion or Coming Reality”. Almost 70 participants spent a day discussing with speakers and organisers how to “fill this generic political topic with concrete actions”.
“Far too little has happened since the CMU project was actually launched by Lord Hill in spring 2015,” said Thorsten Müller, Executive Board Member of EFFAS and Chairman of the DVFA. “The gaps in terms of capital market breadth and depth are still very pronounced and the European capital market is even falling further behind the US and Asia. This is particularly problematic as major tasks need to be solved in order to finance digitalisation and the transformation towards a carbon-neutral Europe.”
In particular, highly standardised products such as derivatives and the associated clearing and trading were named as sub-projects that could potentially be implemented quickly, so-called “low hanging fruits”, for a harmonised common European market.
For the stock markets, a broad inflow of capital is critical to success so that more IPOs find their way onto the stock exchange. Standardised dividend and profit taxes across Europe would have a supporting effect here. There were also strong calls for an equity funded pension scheme. Sweden’s “AP7 programme” is regarded as best practice in Europe. This could significantly broaden and deepen the continuous flow of capital to the equity markets.
The securitisation markets are also clearly lagging behind the USA. The Capital Market Forum called for the increased securitisation of SME loans in order to relieve the burden on debt financing partners via the capital market.
Further on, Thorsten Müller emphasised that SCOPE Ratings has been the first European rating agency to be accredited by the European Central Bank: “This will ensure more competition among the rating agencies and should not be underestimated in terms of the importance of the European capital market. This fulfils at least one important building block for a future capital market union.”
To summarise the EFFAS and DVFA Capital Markets Forum, it can be said that many of the building blocks for a capital markets union are on the table – they must now finally be consistently implemented by the EU Commission. There is a lot to do decide upon for the newly elected European Parliament.
For any queries, please refer to:
Alvaro Wagener Diez | Marketing & Communications Manager
EFFAS e.V.
Sophienstraße 44, DE 60487 Frankfurt am Main.
a.wagener@effas.com
Phone: +49 69 98959519 – Fax: +49 69 98957529
website: www.effas.com
- About EFFAS
EFFAS is a Not-for-profit organisation set up in 1962 with 14 national member associations in Europe, representing more than 16,000 Financial analysts, Asset managers, pension fund managers, corporate finance specialists, risk managers, treasurers among many other professional profiles from the investment profession. EFFAS is a certification body for finance with over 24,400 certificate holders worldwide. https://effas.com/
