Capital Markets Union: A Vision for the Long Term

Capital Markets Union (CMU) is a welcome economic policy initiative. If well designed and implemented, it can improve access to funding, the allocation of capital, prospects for savers, and financial stability in the European Union. But since financial ecosystems only change slowly, CMU cannot be a short-term cyclical instrument to substitute for subdued bank lending. Shifting financial intermediation towards capital markets will require persistent action on multiple fronts. The policy agenda should aim to enhance both capital markets development and cross-border financial integration, two distinct but mutually reinforcing aims; to increase the transparency, reliability, and comparability of information, a key enabler of trust in financial markets which always involve information asymmetries; and to adequately address financial stability concerns. We propose a staged process to sustain the momentum and make Europe's CMU fully worthy of its 'union' label.