The Savings and Investments Union: from broad ambition to emerging priorities

The European Union’s Savings and Investments Union (SIU) agenda is ambitious. At first glance, the range of potential policy interventions can seem overwhelming. However, recent developments, particularly legislative packages presented by the European Commission last autumn, suggest that the debate is gradually converging around clearer priorities. What initially appeared to be a broad reform agenda is beginning to crystallise into key building blocks that could shape short-term progress.

The first of these concerns retail investor participation. A central challenge here is how to mobilise European household savings more effectively and channel them to capital markets. Complementary pension products have regained prominence. Properly designed and incentivised, they could strengthen Europe’s long-term investment capacity while offering citizens more diversified savings opportunities.

Financial literacy is also essential. Expanding retail investment requires not only better products but also better-informed savers. Strengthening financial education initiatives in the Member States can enable broader participation in capital markets. Reflecting this, the Florence School of Banking and Finance is working with Portuguese authorities to evaluate and enhance national financial literacy programmes.

A second building block addresses barriers that still prevent financial actors from operating efficiently in Europe. This is particularly relevant for firms in trading, post-trading and settlement activities. Despite decades of integration efforts, the European financial ecosystem remains fragmented along national lines. Regulatory differences and operational frictions limit cross-border efficiency.

Removing these obstacles could deepen European capital markets, thus enhancing liquidity, improving market depth and helping markets remain competitive as technological change reshapes financial infrastructure and global competition intensifies.

A third dimension concerns supervision. The Commission highlights the importance of strengthening centralised supervisory mechanisms and fostering greater convergence among Member States. More consistent supervisory practices could reduce regulatory arbitrage, boost market confidence and support a more integrated financial system.

Importantly, the Commission stresses that the logic of its approach lies in the coherence of the package. Initiatives are designed to reinforce one another and should be viewed as an integrated reform effort rather than isolated proposals. The ambition is not incremental adjustment but progress toward a unified European capital market.

Certain blind spots remain, particularly where EU legislative powers are limited by the treaty framework. Taxation is a notable example. Fiscal incentives could encourage uptake of retail investment products and long-term savings vehicles, yet taxation largely remains a national competence, shaped by democratic debate in parliaments.

These questions, and the broader SIU agenda, were central in discussions in the SIU Week organised by the Florence School of Banking and Finance (European University Institute). The week featured an inaugural FBF SIU Academy alongside our tenth-anniversary conference. Hosted at the European University Institute in Florence, the gatherings brought together around 150 participants from across European policy and financial communities.

The result was an intellectually vibrant exchange on the opportunities and limits of the current reform agenda. As the SIU debate evolves, such discussions will remain essential to test ideas, identify gaps and shape the next phase of Europe’s financial integration. The School also announced the launch of its SIU Lab, a new forum for advancing this important policy conversation in the years ahead.