The European Central Bank has published an Occasional Paper, reflecting the authors’ views, that reviews a decade of the European Union’s Capital Markets Union (CMU) agenda and sets out five measures intended to foster a more integrated single market for capital. The paper links deeper capital market integration to objectives including financing innovation and productivity, funding the green and digital transition, mobilising household savings, strengthening private risk sharing and supporting convergence across Member States. The analysis argues that CMU progress has been constrained by fragmented national frameworks and political obstacles, with particularly limited traction in areas such as taxation, insolvency, pensions and supervision. Against that backdrop, it proposes five high-impact priorities: a new European savings and investment product standard to increase retail participation, supported by tax incentives and low-fee, portable design choices; greater integration of trading and post-trading infrastructure, including a comprehensive consolidated tape, more pan-European liquidity and stepwise legal harmonisation alongside use of digitalisation and distributed ledger technology; an “effective supervisory ecosystem” through a deeper single rulebook, stronger European Supervisory Authorities and more centralised EU supervision where relevant; measures to revitalise EU securitisation without weakening financial stability safeguards, including streamlined due diligence and reporting and exploration of an EU platform, potentially for green securitisations; and scaling up equity and venture capital financing, including by mobilising public investors such as the European Investment Fund and widening the institutional investor base to address late-stage funding gaps. The paper positions these measures as feasible near-term priorities to be complemented by longer-term initiatives, and notes it forms part of the ECB’s ongoing analytical support to CMU policy discussions and will be followed by additional technical work.
European Central Bank 2025-03-11
European Central Bank paper proposes five measures to advance a single market for capital
The European Central Bank published an Occasional Paper reviewing the EU's Capital Markets Union agenda, proposing five measures to enhance market integration. Key priorities include a new European savings product standard, integrated trading infrastructure, an effective supervisory ecosystem, revitalised securitisation, and expanded equity financing. The paper highlights these as feasible near-term priorities to support ongoing CMU policy discussions.