Markus Ferber - German EPP Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs - expounded his views on the Capital Markets Union (CMU), ahead of his intervention at the BETTER FINANCE conference on the topic.
Whereas Mr Ferber stresses that it is indeed vital for Europe to reduce the reliance on bank financing and develop more diverse financing for the real economy, he questions whether the proposed CMU in its current state would constitute an adequate solution to achieve this.
In particular, Ferber criticizes the unambitious timeline that risks wasting the precious momentum currently driven by the bleak financial situation as well as the limited scope of the European Commission’s Green Paper.
Whereas he agrees that the focus on the Prospectus Directive and the revitalization of the securitization market makes sense, he emphasizes the fact that such technically difficult and politically treacherous issues should be accompanied by additional measures including crowdfunding, the development of a high-quality framework for covered bonds, and a recalibration of capital requirements under solvency II rules.
In short, Markus Ferber believes “the CMU cannot be completed through a single piece of legislation, but must consist of wide ranging complementary measures”.
Read Mr Ferber’s statement here.