Savings and investments union

What is the savings and investments union?

The savings and investments union (SIU) is an initiative to improve how the EU's financial system channels savings into productive investments. Its aim is to provide a wider range of efficient investment and financing opportunities for citizens and businesses.

A genuine savings and investments union will help channel hundreds of billions of euro of additional investment to the European economy every year, helping to boost the EU's competitiveness, strategic autonomy and economic security

European Council conclusions, 20 March 2025

The European Commission presented the savings and investments union strategy in March 2025.

Why is a union of savings and investments needed?

The savings and investments union will make the EU's economy stronger by better connecting savings to investments. This is crucial in the context of current geopolitical shifts, the need to tackle climate change and technological developments.

An estimated €10 trillion of household savings are currently held in the EU in low-yield bank deposits rather than being invested in capital markets, where potential returns could be higher. This mismatch prevents savings from being used effectively to support business investments and the broader real economy.

Small and medium-sized enterprises often struggle to secure financing from banks, which typically prefer lending to larger, more established companies. As a result, there is a gap between available funding and the growing investment needs of the EU economy.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that internal barriers to the provision of services create a cost equivalent to a tariff of over 100%, significantly hampering the EU economy.

How would the savings and investments union work?

The savings and investments union would encompass the entire EU financial system and be developed at both EU and national level. This comprehensive approach is designed to create a unified, well-regulated, and integrated financial landscape across all EU member states.

It would build upon progress already made in the capital markets union and banking union. By integrating capital markets and the banking sector, the SIU would improve the efficient allocation of savings into investments. This integration would allow financial institutions to better channel savings from individuals, businesses, and institutions into productive investments that support the real economy.

Delivering the SIU would be a shared responsibility among EU institutions, member states, and all key stakeholders. It would require concerted efforts and close collaboration across four strands of work:

• citizens and savings, providing retail savers with more opportunities to save in capital markets, especially for retirement
• investments and financing, improving capital availability and access for all businesses, including small and medium enterprises
• integration and scale, removing regulatory and supervisory barriers to enable market infrastructures, asset management, and fund distribution to work across borders
• efficient supervision in the single market, ensuring all financial market participants are treated equally, regardless of their location in the EU

What would the benefits of the savings and investments union be?

The savings and investment union strategy would bring several benefits to the EU, its citizens, and businesses.

Boost the real economy

The SIU would enable businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to access more diverse sources of financing. It would help businesses grow and thrive, driving increased investment, innovation and productivity.

Job creation and better salaries

The growth of businesses would lead to the creation of better jobs and more competitive salaries for European workers, contributing to stronger economic sectors across the EU.

Strengthen EU strategic autonomy

The SIU would strengthen Europe's economic resilience and reduce dependency on external sources of financing by improving the internal allocation of savings. This would contribute to the EU's open strategic autonomy, ensuring that the EU has more control over its economic and technological future.

Support EU policy priorities

The SIU would help fund key EU policies priorities, such as the European Green Deal, digital transformation, and improving EU security. It would provide financing for areas like decarbonisation, technological innovation, and enhanced security, all of which are vital for maintaining Europe's global competitiveness.

The EU's initiatives on the savings and investment union

Market integration and supervision package

In December 2025, the European Commission presented the market integration and supervision package as part of the SIU strategy.

The package aims to unlock the full potential of the single market for financial services by reducing the regulatory and supervisory barriers that keep EU capital markets fragmented and prevent private savings from turning into productive investments within the EU.

Its objective is to facilitate investors’ access to a wider range of investment opportunities and enable companies to raise capital more easily across borders.

Creating a true single market for capital

Despite past integration efforts, the EU’s capital markets remain too fragmented and inefficient to mobilise the vast pool of EU savings needed to meet significant investment needs, in particular in key strategic sectors.

The package seeks to promote deeper market integration by removing barriers to cross-border investment and simplifying the rules governing EU capital markets. It aims to create a more integrated, efficient and competitive financial system by:

• aligning regulatory requirements and national practices across the EU
• simplifying processes and improving access to capital markets, making them more attractive and accessible for both investors and companies
• supporting smoother cross-border trading, investment and fund distribution, enabling savings to flow more freely across the single market
• removing regulatory obstacles and supporting innovation in financial technologies

Stronger and more consistent supervision

Currently, supervisory practices are not equally predictable across the EU and do not always holistically assess providers’ cross-border activities.

The package seeks to strengthen the supervisory framework by reducing fragmentation and improving the effectiveness of oversight in capital markets. The initiatives aim to:

• enhance the role and powers of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to ensure more effective and harmonised supervision of cross-border financial services and strengthen trust in the EU passporting framework
• strengthen supervisory convergence tools and introduce new mechanisms for cooperation and mutual assistance between national supervisors

Member states have already begun examining the proposal in the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN).

• Commission launches major package to fully integrate EU financial markets (European Commission, 4 December 2025)
• European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)

Securitisation framework

The EU's post-crisis securitisation framework has made the market safer and more transparent. However, the framework’s stringent requirements, particularly around compliance costs and capital requirements, are criticised for constraining market activity.

In June 2025, the Commission tabled a set of proposals to amend the EU's securitisation framework to address these concerns. In December 2025, the Council agreed on a negotiating position on revitalising the EU's securitisation market.

The proposed amendments aim to enable the securitisation market to fulfil its potential in supporting the Union's competitiveness. A stronger and simpler securitisation framework would help channel more investment into real-economy activities, including lending to SMEs and infrastructure projects.

What is securitisation?

Securitisation is a financing technique that pools illiquid financial assets (such as mortgage loans, corporate loans and consumer credit) and converts them into tradable securities that can be sold to investors.

In practice, an originator (often a bank) bundles a pool of loans and transfers them to a separate entity (a special purpose vehicle), which issues securities backed by the borrowers' repayments. This lets the originator of the loans transfer the risk associated with the loans, free up regulatory capital and raise liquidity, supporting further lending to households and businesses.

Non-bank originators, such as corporations and infrastructure project sponsors, also use securitisation as a funding or liquidity management tool.

• Savings and investment union: Council agrees position on revitalising the EU’s securitisation market (press release, 19 December 2025)
• Securitisation (European Commission)

Savings and investment accounts

The Commission has presented a recommendation on savings and investment accounts (SIAs).

The aim behind SIAs is to provide citizens with an easy and user-friendly way to grow their wealth and achieve their personal financial goals. These accounts would be provided by authorised financial services providers, which would enable retail investors to invest in capital markets.

The main objective of the recommendation is to increase retail investment through tax incentives.

• Savings and investment accounts (European Commission)

Financial literacy 

On 30 September 2025, the Commission presented a financial literacy strategy for the EU to address low levels of financial literacy. According to a 2023 Eurobarometer survey, only 18% of EU citizens have a high level of financial literacy. The strategy aims to empower citizens to make informed decisions regarding their personal finances, facilitating their participation in capital markets.

• EU to boost financial literacy and investment opportunities for citizens (European Commission)

See also

• Savings and investments union (European Commission)