MNI BRIEF: ECB's De Guindos Calls For EU Retail Saving Product

MNI (LONDON) - Europe needs a retail savings product offering tax incentives across the bloc and to harmonise insolvency, accounting and securities laws to boost productivity, European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said in a speech in Riga on Wednesday.

Finalising the Capital Markets Union, combined with a more coordinated single market, is necessary but insufficient to reignite European productivity, de Guindos noted, calling for an “ambitious and comprehensive agenda.”

De Guindos wants lower barriers to investor participation in equity and bond markets, and to facilitate the portability of pensions across countries to better support the single labour market.

The EU must make listings in Europe more attractive and efficient by providing a single pool of liquidity, which requires deeper integration of trading and post-trading regimes, and harmonisation in insolvency, accounting, and securities law, where “such as a 28th regime, or enhanced cooperation, should be considered” when political agreement proves difficult.