Today’s communication of the European Commission, “Savings and Investments Union – a Strategy to Foster Citizens Wealth and Economic Competitiveness in the EU” is a major step towards finally developing deeper, more integrated capital markets that the European Union absolutely needs. Achieving the goals of the SIU will help improve citizens’ financial well-being, meet the financing needs of EU companies and improve their competitiveness.

Simplifications needed to mobilise EU savings, boost investment, and foster greater integration

EFAMA has today published its European Quarterly Statistical Release for the fourth quarter of 2024, together with an overview of the full year 2024.
 

Yesterday, the European Commission published its first regulatory simplification Omnibus, which aims to reduce the sustainability reporting burden on EU companies through amendments to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and EU Taxonomy Regulation. We support this initiative as a positive and necessary step to increase the competitiveness of European companies and reduce regulatory burden, while still maintaining the ambitions of the EU Green Deal. 

Positive developments include: 

In our latest Monthly Statistical Release, we show the main developments for the European investment fund market in December 2024 and include a first overview and analysis of the full year 2024.

Increasing fund assets is seen as a more realistic and effective avenue

Today, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) published the 20^th issue of its Market Insights series, titled “Beyond fund consolidation: a more promising strategy for bigger funds and faster cost declines in Europe”. This publication compares the size and number of equity UCITS with that of US equity mutual funds and challenges the commonly held belief that fund consolidation will significantly lower the cost of funds in Europe.
 

In its recently published market report on the costs and performance of EU retail investment products, ESMA asserts that there are “substantial differences in the fund cost level between the EU and the US”. In its accompanying press release, ESMA emphasizes that “the market inefficiencies revealed by this higher cost level show the need to focus on the competitiveness of EU markets, within a future Savings and Investments Union.”