The European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB) is pleased to provide its reflections on the development of a potential EU Savings and Investments Account, one of the key initiatives under the Savings and Investments Union (SIU) Strategy.
In particular, we share the core objectives behind the idea of such an EU-wide instrument, namely to boost retail investor participation in EU capital markets by providing them with an additional long-term, easily accessible, option.
Against this background, we believe that:
• Any initiative in this area should be evaluated against the SIU principles of competitiveness, simplification, reduction of the regulatory complexity and administrative burden.
• a Blueprint on a EU Savings and Investment Account may represent a proportionate first step. Such a solution would offer recognisable EU-wide standards while respecting national specificities.
• In particular, the EU SIA should be a flexible, easily accessible, tax-friendly instrument, based on existing, successful, best practices.
• The EU SIA should not introduce extra regulatory requirements hindering retail investors’ access.
• A EU long-term investment label to finance strategically key sector of the EU Economy, such as “Finance Europe”, should not be linked to or designed as a state-subsidised pension scheme.
• The two initiatives (EU SIA and EU Label) should be separated.
For more detail, access to the full paper