Significant progress is being made on the Savings and Investments Union (SIU), a key pillar of efforts to strengthen the European economy, based on further integration of capital markets.
At last week’s Ecofin meeting, a political agreement was reached on unified supervision of Europe’s capital markets. Speaking at the IMF’s annual meeting in Bangkok, National Economy and Finance Minister and Eurogroup president Kyriakos Pierrakakis described the agreement as a central element of the SIU, noting that more progress had been made in the past 10 months than in the previous decade.
For his part, EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis described the decision as an important step in the negotiations, while noting that he would have preferred a more ambitious outcome.
Changes to stock exchange supervision
The European Commission’s proposal for the “Market Integration and Supervision Package” envisaged that all stock exchanges would be supervised by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The political agreement, however, includes exemptions that mainly concern Deutsche Börse, Swiss group SIX Group, which controls the Madrid market, and British platform Aquis.
The package aims to reduce fragmentation in the regulatory framework, enabling stock exchange operators to achieve the scale and efficiency they need to compete globally.
Greater market integration is expected to facilitate cross-border capital flows and the financing of business investment, strengthening the EU’s competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy.
Investment accounts to put savings to work
Alongside central supervision of stock markets, progress is also being made on the part of the SIU aimed at encouraging the creation of savings and investment accounts.
European households hold substantial savings, which, unlike in the US, are channelled mainly into low-yield bank deposits.
According to a presentation by the Financial Services Committee to the Eurogroup, around one in four European households holds shares, bonds or mutual fund units. In Greece, the corresponding figure is 12%.
Fewer people invest directly in these financial products. The share of retail investors participating in the Greek capital market stood at close to 4% in 2025, although it had risen particularly rapidly, by more than 150% since 2022.
Greece’s “next-generation savings pot”
A special investment account the government plans to introduce, known as the “next-generation savings pot”, is expected to help boost Greek participation in capital markets.
The plan provides for a state contribution of up to €1,200 a year for each child, from birth until they turn 18, provided the family contributes an equivalent amount.
This would not be a conventional savings account with a fixed interest rate, but a long-term investment account. It would be managed by certified providers, such as fund management companies or insurance companies.
According to the Financial Services Committee’s presentation, interest is growing among EU member states in introducing such accounts to encourage broader retail investor participation in capital markets. National approaches, however, vary significantly, particularly in their tax treatment.
Twelve EU countries already have a framework for savings and investment accounts, as the bloc seeks to channel a greater share of savings into investment in the real economy.
Source: ANA-MPA