The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute published highlights from the European Savings and Retail Banking Group’s 2025 Retail Banking Conference in Brussels, which brought together Members of the European Parliament, European Commission and European Central Bank officials, and banking CEOs to discuss how savings and retail banks can support Europe’s strategic priorities in retail payments, long-term investment, and housing. A recurring message across panels was the need for a simpler, clear, proportionate, and practical regulatory framework to enable the sector’s role with households, small and medium-sized enterprises, and local communities. On payments, participants focused on Europe’s reliance on non-European digital payment schemes, declining cash usage, and potential physical disruptions, arguing for greater resilience and sovereignty in payment infrastructure. Discussions covered the European Payments Initiative, euro-denominated stablecoin proposals, and the digital euro, with ECB representatives emphasising a complementary design that preserves coexistence of central bank and commercial bank money and includes cash-like privacy and broad accessibility. Speakers also stressed strategic alignment between the digital euro and market initiatives such as EPI and Bizum, warning that disproportionate implementation could crowd out private European solutions, and highlighted the operational role of commercial banks in distribution and tokenised interbank settlement. On the Savings and Investments Union, fragmentation was presented as a key obstacle, with calls for a single rulebook and more harmonised supervision alongside simpler retail investor onboarding and disclosure, and greater emphasis on financial education supported by both digital tools and in-person guidance. Housing discussions linked affordability pressures to competitiveness and mobility, noted the role of locally rooted banks in cooperative and social housing, and raised concerns that prudential calibrations, expiring transitional arrangements, and regulatory floors under CRR III could penalise low-risk mortgage lending, alongside caution against using capital regulation to pursue housing policy objectives. Next steps referenced at the conference included the prospect of reaching a final compromise in trialogue on RIS and ESBG hosting the European Stock Market Learning Initiative award ceremony on 20 March 2026.

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