06 April 2022

Commissioner McGuinness at the ECB/European Commission Conference on European financial integration, 'An EU financial syst

..one of the main ways we can [build a financial syetem] is by deepening the Capital Markets Union, which also means building up key financial infrastructures within the European Union, in particular our central counterparties.

I'm going back in history, to 65 years ago, when the Treaty of Rome was signed, laying the very foundations for today's European Union.

And at that very beginning, the founders set out the building blocks for a common market, and that was based on what we known – the four freedoms: goods, people, services, and capital.

And really we have spent the past 65 years working to integrate Europe and European financial markets, step by step, but based on those very four freedoms I've mentioned.

So twenty-two countries joined the original six signatories – but as we know one country has since voted to leave the European Union.

And over that history of 65 years we have had crises, we have had missteps and failures along that journey.

But there has also been considerable progress and determination to continue to build a better European Union. And I think we have learned from our mistakes - and sometimes that is the best learning because you hopefully will not repeat them.

So a more financially integrated European Union means that companies have more opportunities to get funding, from a variety of sources.

It means also that investors have more opportunities to invest in the whole of the single market, and not just in their home Member State.

And of course for consumers, there is greater access to more products and services from different providers.

And really I want to thank the team at the European Central Bank and the Commission for organising today's event perhaps even more timely given the geopolitical situation in which we live.

So if I look over the last decade we've spent a lot of time – and rightly so – responding, if you like, to fixing the things that we got wrong in the past or indeed, that went wrong in the past.

So now is the time to look ahead in my view and build a financial system for the future and for that sustainable future that we're all trying to build.

And one of the main ways we can do that is by deepening the Capital Markets Union, which also means building up key financial infrastructures within the European Union, in particular our central counterparties.

[Why now]

So already a new European financial landscape has emerged and is continuing to emerge.

After Brexit, a multi-hub structure replaced a system focused on just one city.

The European headquarters of many financial firms have moved to Paris, Luxembourg, Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan, to name a few.

And not all parts of the industry picked the same new home.

Many banks went to Paris or Frankfurt, while asset management companies chose Dublin or Luxembourg. And indeed, Amsterdam saw an increase in trading.

We've seen one large finance cluster replaced by several, and each has a clear focus on a particular activity in the financial system.

So as EU policy-makers of course, we monitor these shifts very closely, especially their potential impact on financial stability and indeed, financial integration in the European Union.

So let me talk about this issue of financial stability and here we have to ensure that financial service providers and key financial infrastructure fall under our own regulation.

And that isn't just because we believe our regulation is necessarily better or more sophisticated than in other jurisdictions.

But rather because when these activities are there to serve the European economy and European citizens, it is our duty to make sure we have European oversight.  

So the multi-hub structure also challenges us to think hard about what financial integration actually means and in particular in a digital era.

Today, the focus is no longer on establishing links towards one financial centre.

So instead, several centres need to be connected to each other, and into the economies across the 27 Member States and local systems.

Financial integration doesn't necessarily require a central market for an entire currency area.

And a clear example is the US, where finance is spread across various cities including New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco....

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