Webinar and presentation of AMAFI’s CMU report

AMAFI teamed up with the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS-ECMI) to stage a webinar on 30 June, the release date for the association’s report (AMAFI / 20-40) on completing capital markets union (CMU). Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, Vice-President of the European Parliament’s ECON Committee, Andrea Beltramello, from the private office of European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, Fabrice Demarigny, Chairman of the Next CMU High-Level Group, and AMAFI Chairman Stéphane Giordano all spoke during a discussion moderated by Karel Lannoo, CEO of CEPS-ECMI. Over 80 participants from all sectors took part in the event.

Agreement crystalised during discussion of a number of reforms needed to reinvigorate the CMU initiative, including steps to establish a proper European securitisation market and strengthen supervisory convergence so that EU-27 markets can play their role in financing the economy to the full.

A delegation led by Stéphane Giordano presented AMAFI’s report to French authorities, including the Treasury and the private office of the Minister for the Economy and Finance, the European Commission (DG FISMA) and several member states’ permanent representations. These meetings were an opportunity to highlight AMAFI’s proposals on relaunching the European securitisation market, tailoring Basel III transposition to safeguard market making, facilitating retail participation in financial markets and mitigating the impact of a hard Brexit (access to UK central counterparties and scope of STO/DTO).

Commission action plan

Following adoption by the European Parliament’s ECON Committee of the CMU own-initiative report, which espouses a number of priorities proposed by AMAFI (AMAFI / 20-50), the European Commission published its action plan on 24 September. Given the current economic situation, and with Brexit just three months away, the eagerly awaited plan is of critical importance because it is designed to boost CMU.

The plan is organised around 16 sets of actions, including several that AMAFI is especially gratified to see, such as measures to relaunch the securitisation market, preserve the competitiveness of European market makers, create a single access point to the financial and CSR data of EU businesses, assess current practices in supervisory convergence in order to identify needs in terms of harmonising European legislation, and improve access to financial markets for retail investors.