On 19 March 2025, the EU Commission published a communication on its strategy (Strategy) for a Savings and Investments Union (SIU). This EU-wide initiative aims to enhance financial opportunities for people and businesses, while supporting the EU's economic growth and competitiveness.
The Strategy identifies four key policy areas: (i) citizens and savings, (ii) investments and financing, (iii) integration and scale, and (iv) efficient supervision in the single market. In addition, it contains a section on the integration and competitiveness of the EU banking sector.
The EU Commission will publish a mid-term review of the SIU by Q2 2027 to assess the progress made and integrate feedback from various stakeholders.
1. Citizens and savings
1.1 Retail participation in capital markets
The EU Commission proposes several measures to encourage and incentivise retail savers to invest a greater portion of their savings in capital market instruments. Specifically, the EU Commission aims to:
- adopt measures to create a European blueprint for savings and investment accounts or products based on existing best practice, accompanied by a recommendation on the tax treatment of these accounts (Q3 2025).
- facilitate an agreement between the EU Parliament and the Council of the EU on the Retail Investment Strategy, with the option to withdraw the proposal if the objectives are not achieved.
- adopt a financial literacy strategy to create a more "investment savvy" culture in the EU (Q3 2025).
- explore ways to expand retail investor access to financial products that support EU priorities in collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
1.2 Supplementary pension sector
The Strategy highlights the importance of developing an EU supplementary pensions sector to ensure financial security for citizens and support capital markets, notably in light of current demographic trends.
To achieve this, the EU Commission plans to:
- issue recommendations on the use of auto-enrolment for pension savings, pension tracking systems, and dashboards that will set out best practices and lessons learned across the EU (Q4 2025)
- review the EU frameworks for institutions for occupational retirement provision (IORPs) and the pan-European personal pension product (PEPP) with the aim of increasing participation in supplementary pensions (Q4 2025)
2. Investments and financing
In line with the new objective of "simplification", as outlined in the Omnibus I Directive, the Strategy proposes initiatives with the goal of expanding the capital pool for investments in the EU economy, and lowering financing costs for EU businesses. Specifically, the EU Commission aims to:
- take measures to stimulate equity investments by institutional investors and insurers, by: (i) specifying in the Solvency II Delegated Act the eligibility criteria for the favourable prudential treatment of long-term investments in equity, and (ii) giving guidance on the use of the favourable prudential treatment for such investments (Q4 2025).
- review and upgrade the EuVECA Regulation1 (Q3 2026).
- remove differences in national tax procedures that create administrative burdens and barriers to cross-border investment, while supporting Member States' individual efforts for this purpose.
- simplify EU listing rules and reduce burdens to increase liquidity for listed companies, thereby making EU public markets more attractive.
- propose measures to facilitate investor exits from private companies, potentially through multilateral intermittent trading of private company shares (Q3 2026).
- make proposals on securitisation that aim to simplify due diligence and transparency and adjust prudential requirements for banks and insurers (Q2 2025).
3. Integration and scale
The Strategy emphasises that EU capital markets face challenges due to regulatory, supervisory, and political fragmentation.
Barriers persist, limiting the ability of the EU's trading and post-trading infrastructures to fully benefit from the single market. In addition, in the asset management sector, firms operating across Member States are subject to unnecessary costs and burdens, which, in turn, result in fewer and more costly investment opportunities for EU citizens.
To address this, the EU Commission intends to:
- set up a dedicated channel for all market participants to report on barriers encountered within the single market and enhance enforcement efforts to accelerate their removal (Q2 2025).
- propose legislation to remove barriers to cross-border activity, modernise the legislative framework to recognise new technologies and financial developments, and improve execution quality and price formation on EU trading venues. Furthermore, the EU Commission is considering replacing Directives with Regulations (Q4 2025).
- propose legislation to remove remaining barriers to the distribution of EU-authorised funds, reduce operational costs for cross border groups, simplify their operations, and improve client access (Q4 2025)
- assess the need for a review of the Shareholders Rights Directive (Q4 2026).
4. Efficient supervision in the single market
The SIU aims to ensure harmonised supervision, whereall financial market operators receive the same supervisory treatment, irrespectiveof their location in the EU. Currently, the differences in supervisory rules across Member States lead to higher compliance costs for companies and limited choices for consumers.
To achieve unified supervision in the single market, the EU Commission plans to:
- encourage European Supervisory Authorities and national competent authorities to fully utilise existing tools and implement the simplification agenda as outlined in the Simplification Communication.
- propose measures to strengthen supervisory convergence tools (Q4 2025).
- make proposals to achieve more unified supervision of capital markets (as indicated in the Competitiveness Compass), including by transferring responsibility for certain tasks to EU level (Q4 2025).
5. Competitiveness and integration of the banking sector
Lastly, the EU Commission aims to enhance the integration and competitiveness of the EU banking sector, notably by advancing the Banking Union. To achieve this, the EU Commission is expected to:
- invite and support co-legislators to address the shortcomings of failure management for mid-sized banks by agreeing on an ambitious outcome on crisis management and deposit insurance framework negotiations. In addition, the EU Commission will take decisive steps to advance the Banking Union, including by identifying a way forward on the European Deposit Insurance Scheme.
- publish a report assessing the overall situation of the banking system in the single market, including an evaluation of the banking sector's competitiveness (2026).
- continue monitoring developments in banking markets to ensure a swift reaction whenever financial stability, the internal market, or the EU banking sector's international competitiveness is at risk.
Footnote
1. The European Venture Capital Fund Regulation (EuVECA) is a voluntary EU fund regulatory regime that introduces an internal marketing passport for venture capital fund managers.
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