Views from AFME
The Truth About What Is Really Holding Back Europe’s Equity Markets
European equity markets are often misunderstood. Policy makers, investors, and companies frequently operate on assumptions that don’t fully reflect reality — influencing decisions about where to list, how rules are shaped, where to invest, and how capital flows across Europe. It’s time to separate myth from reality.
Europe’s Banking Rules Need Simplification Now — Not Further Layers of Complexity
Europe’s financial services sector is burdened by excessive rules. As of mid-last year, more than a quarter of EU Delegated Acts adopted across all policy areas concern financial services – more than agriculture and environment combined. And that’s before counting the EU Directives, Regulations, national laws and supervisory expectations layered on top or underneath. The volume has become so vast that it is hard to keep track.
Europe Must Confront High Post-Trade Costs to Deliver the Savings and Investment Union
Across Europe, policy makers are rightly focused on building deeper, liquid and more competitive capital markets that can channel investment to companies and unlock new opportunities for savers and investors. The push toward greater market integration under the EU’s ambition to create a true Savings and Investment Union is part of this effort.
But there is a less visible part of the system that is quietly undermining these goals: the post-trade infrastructure that underpins how securities are settled and safeguarded. While it may seem like plumbing, its costs and efficiency have a direct impact on investor returns, companies’ cost of raising capital, and Europe’s overall competitiveness.
DORA: The challenges and opportunities of pooled testing
On April 23, AFME and Murex held a workshop discussion to explore how incoming cyber testing requirements, combining both banks and third-party providers in a single exercise, could work in practice.
