CALL FOR EVIDENCE

FOR AN INITIATIVE (without an impact assessment)

This document aims to inform the public and stakeholders about the Commission's work, so they can provide feedback and participate effectively in consultation activities.

We ask these groups to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions, and to give us any relevant information they may have.

Title of the initiative

Recommendation on Savings and Investment accounts

Lead DG – responsible unit

DG FISMA – B1 - Capital Markets Union

DG TAXUD - D2 - Direct Tax Policy & Cooperation

Likely Type of initiative

Recommendation

Indicative Timing

Q3 2025

Additional Information

–

This document is for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by this document, including its timing, are subject to change.

A. Political context, problem definition and subsidiarity check

Political context [max 10 lines]

In her Political Guidelines 2024-2029, President von der Leyen announced that the Commission would “propose a European Savings and Investments Union (SIU), including banking and capital markets”. The initiative aims to help leverage the enormous wealth of private savings in Europe to invest in innovation, clean and digital transitions, defence and other key priorities of the EU.

In her mission letter, President von der Leyen tasked Commissioner Albuquerque to develop the Savings and Investments Union and to “focus action on supporting people to save better, fostering capital for innovation, unlocking digital finance, ensuring the competitiveness of the financial sector and harnessing sustainable finance”. Moreover, in his mission letter, Commissioner Hoekstra was tasked “to identify innovative solutions for a coherent tax framework for the EU’s financial sector”.

In its Communication of 19 March 2025, the Commission set out its strategy on the SIU, where, with a view to encouraging retail participation in capital markets, it announced measures to create a European blueprint for savings and investments accounts or products based on existing best practices accompanied by a recommendation addressed to the Member States on the tax treatment of savings and investments accounts.

The need for greater retail participation in capital markets has been consistently reiterated also by the Eurogroup in inclusive format and on several occasions by the European Council, including in its conclusions of 20 March 2025. They both call for the Commission to facilitate retail access to simple and effective savings and investments products. At the same time, some Member States have been working on outlining common features of possible retail European savings products or accounts.

Problem the initiative aims to tackle [max 25 lines]

The reports of Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta highlighted remaining inefficiencies in EU’s capital markets, in particular a significant savings and investment mismatch in the EU, where citizens' financial wealth is being underserved with savings held overwhelmingly in low-yielding deposits, and companies, particularly young and innovative ones, are struggling to meet their capital needs due to inadequate financing options. There is therefore urgent need to act to better link up savings with investment opportunities to create real economic impact.

EU citizens hold significant savings: in Q2 2023, EU households saved 14,79% of their disposable income (ESTAT). In 2023 EU citizens held €11,63 trillion or 31,01% of their savings in currency and deposits (ESTAT, 2023 data). Bank deposits are safe and liquid, and it’s important for EU citizens to maintain a financial cushion on bank deposits. But bank deposits offer limited returns. Without increased participation in capital markets, EU citizens are missing out on the opportunities of wealth creation through possible increased returns on their long-term savings. The Savings and Investments Union is not about quick gains on the capital markets. The SIU objective is rather to make investing a viable opportunity for citizens to invest in a responsible manner to grow their wealth to support the realization of important life projects or to cope with unexpected life events.

At the same time, massive amounts of capital are needed to finance the EU’s broader policy goals including competitiveness, innovation, green, digital and defence investments. The banking sector remains an important source of financing in the EU and retail savers already play a central role in financing the EU economy via bank deposits.: in 2023 bank loans accounted for 50,43% of the financing of non-financial corporations (ESTAT, ESTAT, ECB, DG FISMA calculations). But bank finance is not well suited for funding all investment needs, in particular those of young and innovative companies, which require equity rather than debt and represent relatively higher risk investments.

EU capital markets are still missing the necessary scale and depth to offer sufficient financing opportunities for dynamic and innovative European companies, and cross-border provision of services and transactions are still subject to numerous barriers. Increased direct and indirect participation of retail investors in capital markets could help bolster the depth and liquidity of EU capital markets and contribute to increasing the supply of private capital to EU companies.

Basis for EU action (legal basis and subsidiarity check) [max 10 lines]

Legal basis

The Recommendation is a non-binding EU act, pursuant to Article 292 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). As such, it does not impose any legal obligations on Member States but expresses the Commission’s view and expectation on the adoption of best practices as regards EU retail access to financial services and the internal market for capital.

Practical need for EU action

In addition to offering higher expected long-term returns compared to deposits, larger participation of EU retail investors in EU capital markets is in the interest of the entire EU, as it can contribute to increasing market liquidity and the availability of market-based sources of capital for EU companies, including across borders. . Experience in some Member States has shown the potential for savings and investments accounts to boost retail participation in capital markets, especially when such accounts are matched with appropriate fiscal incentives. The fact that not all Member States have introduced savings and investment accounts and that some solutions have been more successful than others means that there is scope for EU action in the form of a Commission Recommendation. Coordinated efforts by Member States would ensure greater effectiveness to achieve these objectives compared to isolated and uncoordinated measures.

B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how [max 25 lines]

The Recommendation on establishing savings and investment accounts aims to facilitate retail investors participation in capital markets across the EU, with a view of enhancing long-term return on retail savings and, at the same time, contributing to greater liquidity of EU capital markets and fostering the supply of capital to European companies.

Savings and investments accounts exist in some Member States and have shown that they can work as an easy gateway for retail investors’ access to a broad set of investment opportunities, such as equities, bonds, and investment funds, as well as other financial products, that best suit their needs in the short as well as in the long term.

The SIU Communication highlights that savings and investments accounts should be based on best practices and that the most successful examples are accounts that are easy to use, designed with digital interface, give access to a wide range of investment products, offer preferential tax treatment and/or simplified tax compliance and allow a change of provider for no or low cost.

In particular, the gateway function could be best executed in the context where the provider of the accounts would provide retail customers with a wide choice of products. Portability of investments across savings and investments accounts within the same jurisdiction at minimum-cost could also increase competition amongst providers and incentivise account providers to lower custody and transaction fees. More generally, competition in the provision of savings and investments accounts and in the execution of orders could improve the overall offer and outcomes for retail customers, both in terms of width of choices and of costs, thereby providing them with incentives to participate in capital markets and strengthening the single market for financial services.

Savings and investment accounts that incorporate simplified tax procedures and tax incentives on financial investments can be a further catalyst to foster retail investor participation and facilitate the preservation and build-up of retail financial wealth, while increasing the supply of capital in the European economy and contributing to achieve the broader objectives of the SIU. In particular, an initial review of international and domestic best practice indicates that easily accessible accounts with simplified tax procedures that reduce the actual and perceived regulatory burden for retail investors strongly boost the take-up of such accounts by citizens. Evidence has also demonstrated that those schemes that provide fiscal advantages compared to ordinary investment accounts also have broader take-up.

Likely impacts

The potential benefits of allowing EU citizens to access a simple SIA can be substantial.

According to ESMA a hypothetical equity UCITS portfolio would have offered a yearly net return of 6.7% (2.3% in case of a mixed UCITS portfolio) between 2014 and 2023. Commission’s analysis on ECB data show that in the same period, euro area banks’ term deposits had a yearly net return of less than 1%. Over the long term, investing in capital markets will thus likely help EU citizens to realize greater return on their savings, and these effects could be potentially compounded by fiscal benefits associated to the accounts.

Moreover, according to the ECB’s analysis, if EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to EUR 8 trillion – respectively a flow of EUR 350 billion annually could be redirected into market-based investments. 1  

An increase in the availability and uptake of Savings and Investment account would increase the levels of retail participation in capital markets and support household wealth creation. The greater participation of retail citizens in capital markets would also create a positive cascading effect on EU companies, including small and medium entities, which would like to raise funding from capital markets due to the benefit from increased flexibility in terms of financing sources as well as potentially lower funding costs.

Future monitoring

Since 2021, the Commission has been publishing a “List of indicators to monitor progress towards the capital markets union objectives”. This list of indicators will be adapted to include retail participation to capital markets, and it will then be used for regular monitoring of progress towards the overall objectives of the SIU. Member States have committed to carry out a structured monitoring of the progress on CMU through the FSC and EWG. Specifically, Member States are invited to report on any measures aimed at creating savings and investments accounts which come with a variety of accompanying incentives to invest and to share the impact and the role that any incentives may have had.

C. Better regulation

Impact assessment [max 10 lines]

As the proposed Commission Recommendation does not impose legal obligations on Member States but provides guidance on how to facilitate greater retail investors’ participation to capital markets, it does not require an impact assessment.

Consultation strategy [max 10 lines]

Stakeholders are invited to provide their feedback on the characteristics of savings and investments accounts, including potential advantages and disadvantages of specific characteristics such as:

-Possibility to access a wide range of products through the account.

-Eligibility of products that could be accessed via a savings and investments account.

-Easy access to the accounts and to investments including through digital means.

-Easy and affordable portability of the account to other providers

-Pre-conditions and limitations on the ability to provide savings and investments accounts to residents in other Member States in order to foster competition and pan-European investments.

-Tax simplification and tax advantages to be granted to the accounts.

-Any other incentives/encouragement to open a savings and investments account. 

This call for evidence is open for feedback for 4 weeks. Contributions can be provided in the 24 EU official languages on Have your say.

The Commission will consider stakeholders’ contributions to this call for evidence when drafting the Recommendation.

Why we are consulting?

The Commission is seeking input that can help build the path for future action and will consider stakeholders’ contributions to this call for evidence when drafting the Recommendation. The Commission is specifically seeking feedback on the features which could make savings and investments accounts an easy and convenient entry point to capital markets for retail investors who wish to pursue investment opportunities for their savings, and which would foster competition among the providers of such accounts.

Target audience

The main stakeholders are: civil society; consumers and their organisations; social partners; businesses, including SMEs, financial intermediaries, financial services providers, financial market participants and infrastructures and their representative organisations; and European and national authorities.