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This report tracks the progress to date of the European Commission’s flagship Capital Markets Union (CMU) project through seven Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

It is a joint publication with nine trade associations and international organisations representing global and European capital markets stakeholders. It is the first publication in what will be an annual series which will review developments in the CMU project and identify what further work needs to be done.

The report also includes the first country-by-country comparison of individual EU Member State progress against the CMU’s objectives.

Key findings include:

• The availability of pools of capital in Europe has shown encouraging improvements in most EU countries in recent years.
  
  The amount of household savings invested in capital markets instruments (i.e. equity shares, investment fund shares, bonds, insurance and pensions) has increased from 108.7% of GDP in 2012 to 118.2% of GDP in 2017.
   
• Europe continues to over rely on bank lending.
  
  European companies continue to over rely on bank lending, with 86% of their new funding in 2017 coming from banks and only 14% from capital markets.
   
• European capital markets are showing an encouraging trend towards greater intra-EU integration.
  
  Since the aftermath of the financial crisis after the repatriation of some market activities and funding to home countries. Our indicators show growing intra-EU activity between EU Member States in private equity, M&A transactions, debt issuance, and cross-border holdings of portfolio assets.

Three years on from the launch of the Capital Markets Union Action Plan, and with the end of the current Commission approaching, this report provides a timely opportunity to review the progress that has been made to date on achieving the CMU’s vital aims.