EU savers need a single-market place to invest

April 25, 2024--Proposals to leverage the single market to boost retail investment could lead to a product citizens will trust
The European Union is sitting on €33.5 trillion in household savings 1 , or one quarter of its collective GDP, yet much of this money is stuck in banks because households prefer cash over market investments.

Meanwhile, former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta pointed to the EU's fragmented capital markets as a big opportunity to spark growth and future investment in his report on the 27-country single market, published 17 April (Letta, 2024).

He offered a menu of ideas to help the EU put its finances to work in the context of the need to find an extra trillion euros a year to fund the digital and green transitions and to meet defence needs. Managing climate change alone calls for finding 2.6 percent of GDP per year (I4CE, 2024).

Letta's best idea, a new retail investment product that could be sold across the EU, could bring a single market for financial services much closer to reality than currently.