In a speech at the Eurofi Financial Forum in Dublin, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Greece’s minister of national economy and finance and president of the Eurogroup, called for rapid completion of the Banking Union to help mobilize European savings, increase bank investment capacity and support economic growth. He backed reforms on three fronts: removing barriers to cross-border consolidation and the movement of capital and liquidity, strengthening common arrangements for crisis management, resolution and deposit insurance, and simplifying regulation while improving proportionality and supervisory consistency. Pierrakakis argued that national fragmentation limits banks’ scale and ability to finance Europe’s estimated EUR 800 billion in additional annual investment needs. About 16% of eurozone corporate lending is cross-border, while removing restrictions on capital and liquidity transfers could release EUR 230 billion of high-quality liquid assets. Supervisory compliance and reporting cost an estimated EUR 24 billion, and the largest U.S. banks invest more than 2.5 times as much in technology relative to assets as European banks. Reform should preserve both globally competitive European banking groups and regional and local banks serving small and medium-sized enterprises. The Eurogroup will use strategic policy discussions over the coming weeks and months to address national concerns and seek agreement on a balanced reform package.

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