PRESS STATEMENT – 04 December 2024
Frankfurt — 2 min. read
EFFAS Highlights the Urgent Need to Strengthen Equity Markets in the EU
Capital Markets Yearbook 2024 released
EFFAS, the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies, fully supports the latest analysis of the Savings and Investment Union (formerly known as Capital Markets Union). In April 2024, Enrico Letta, in his report “Much more than a market” proposed the creation of a Savings and Investments Union.
EFFAS has just published its Capital Markets Yearbook 2024. The study underscores the utmost importance of equity markets and especially well functioning primary equity markets to support growth and the transition of the European economies to net zero.
According to the analysis Europe’s equity markets have been constantly losing ground in the last decade, especially in comparison to the US. The European Market Cap to GDP ratio is historically disappointing on a global scale. The Nordics, especially Sweden, are somewhat different with Market Cap to GDP ratios comparable to the US. The study also points out that the listed SME market, which is important for growing companies, is suffering from limited IPO activity.
The study also picks some best practices across Europe. “We do not have to reinvent the wheel to strengthen European equity markets, but we need to detect best practices across Europe and then copy these role models for improving our equity markets”, says Thorsten Müller, member of the EFFAS Executive Management Team in charge of capital markets, who directed EFFAS’s study.
Jesús Lopez Zaballos, Chairman of EFFAS, added, this study will support political decision takers, investment professionals, and the interested public to understand the highly diverse structure of European equity markets. Therefore, EFFAS has decided to show the individual equity market portraits for each of the EU-27 member states.
The study is freely available here:
For more information, please contact:
Raquel Zaragoza Marti | Managing Director
E-mail: raquel.zaragoza@effas.com Phone Number: +49 69 98959519
About EFFAS
EFFAS is a Not-for-profit organisation set up in 1962 with 14 national member associations in Europe, representing more than 18,000 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 27,000 certificate holders worldwide.