Michael Anseeuw: ​“We have the savings. We have the reports. We have the ideas. We have the brains and the people. Now we need the ins­tru­ments”

This is the introductory speech give by Michael Anseeuw, President of Febelfin during the Belgian Financial Forum event on the Savings and Investments Union (Brussels, 24 October 2025).

We Europeans are very good at spotting our problems. We commission reports. We write reviews. We organize high-level forums, like this one. But when it comes to acting on what we already know? We hesitate. And we delay.

And that is exactly why I am so pleased Enrico Letta is joining us today.

Mr. Letta is a former Prime Minister of Italy, and he now leads the Jacques Delors Institute, named after the man who shaped the Single Market in the nineties and helped Europe think bigger.

Last year, Mr. Letta wrote a landmark report for the European Council on the future of the Single Market. His message was clear: “the time to act is now”. Complete what Jacques Delors started. And put the Savings and Investments Union at the heart of Europe’s economic future.

Together with the report on Europe’s competitiveness by another former Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, Mr Letta’s work is a clear call to action.

But allow me, as an introduction, to briefly reflect on two simple questions.

First, why?  Why is it so urgent that we move from analysis to action and that we build the Savings and Investments Union?

And second, how? If we build it, how do we build it in a way  that it powers Europe’s economy and opens the door to our next economic frontiers?

Why do we need a European Savings & Investments Union?

Let me start with the “why”. Why do we need a Savings and Investments Union as a core part of a stronger European Single Market?

The answer is simple: look at the world we’re living in. Geopolitical tensions. Trade tensions. Profound technological disruption. Climate stress. European demography. The question is: are we in Europe fully prepared to face all of this? And the honest answer is we are not.

We currently don’t have the scale. We don’t have the resilience. And we don’t have the capital instruments to take on these challenges at the level required and stop Europe falling further behind.

We talk a lot about transition, but in reality, we are facing a race. And unless we act, and we act urgently, we are not going to win it or even stay in the race.

We are standing at the edge of a new industrial revolution, driven by artificial intelligence and quantum computing.  AI is transforming the way we work, produce and take decisions. While quantum computing will lift the ceiling on processing power and shake up industries from medicine to finance, from defence to security. AI and quantum are not just new technological steps. They are fundamental shifts in how entire economies operate.

History tells us something simple: those who lead at the start of an industrial revolution tend to lead for decades, even centuries. In the nineteenth century, Britain took the lead during the first industrial revolution and became the global economic power of its time. Today, the United States and China are setting the pace in AI and deep tech. They are moving fast. They are mobilising capital. They are building ecosystems and building a lead.

If Europe does not act with the same urgency, we will fall behind for decades. That’s why we need the tools that can unlock large-scale investment here as well. Because without these investments, there is no innovation. And without innovation, there is no economic strength. And scale matters more than ever.

Economic growth is driven by three levers: labour force, productivity and capital expenditure.

Our demographic situation will not allow Europe to expand our labour force by much over the coming decades. For the second lever – improving productivity – the arrival and usage of AI are expected to play a key role in the years to come, just like the rise of the internet in early 2000. But unlocking this requires gigantic capital expenditure, the third level for growth. Without these, forget productivity. We witness this impact today in the US economy: more than half of the current growth is due to investments in AI and infrastructure.

This is when scale comes to play: scale of market enables these investments, like in the US. Scale we are lacking in Europe. The last decades, the United States has built deep, flexible capital markets that channel vast amounts of private money into growth and innovation. In Europe, we still rely far too heavily on the balance sheet of banks.

Yes, we are sitting on massive pools of savings. But we lack the tools, the products, and the market structures, and thus the scale to turn those savings into investment. The result is that every year over 300 billion euro flows out of the European economy, chasing better returns elsewhere. Mostly to the US.

These are billions we need here, on our continent. 
To fund our start-ups.
To scale our companies.
To build the infrastructure for our future.

And if we don’t create a real Savings and Investments Union, that money will keep flowing out and we will keep falling behind.

Let me give you another number: 2.6 trillion US dollars. According to the Financial Times, US banks could gain trillions in extra lending capacity as regulation is eased by Washington. Even if it’s only half of that, where’s the level playing field?

Meanwhile, EU capital requirements just keep rising. There was a time when this made sense. When it was essential for financial stability. But we’re now way beyond this point. Every additional requirement takes another bite out of our competitiveness and undermines investment in the real economy. Even a small rise, means less lending, less investment, and less capacity to compete. I’m not calling for deregulation American style, à la Washington. But I am calling for realism, urgency and European action.

“Parole, parole, parole” might be a nostalgic French song to some. It cannot become Europe’s soundtrack. We’ve had the reports. We’ve had the debates. Now we need action. We urgently need the tools that will help us to deliver and to invest.

How do we build the Savings & Investments Union?

If we agree that the Savings and Investments Union is necessary, the next question is how do we build it? And how do we build it for it to work?

First, a reminder of what’s on the table.

In March, almost a year after the Letta report, the European Commission presented its new concept: the Savings and Investments Union, combining the Capital Markets Union and the Banking Union into one single, coherent framework. That’s what the SIU should be: a next-generation internal market for capital.

The structure is being presented around four pillars, and securitization, the savings and investment account and financial literacy have already been communicated as first deliverables. Some elements depend on Member States. Others can move faster under the European Commission’s lead.

To further develop the Savings and Investments Union, I see two equally essential priorities.

First priority: we need to expand the investor base.

This is where it all starts. If we want investments, we need investors. And if we want investors, we need to give them reasons to commit their capital to Europe.

We know what investors look for. They want a return for their risk. They want liquidity beyond traditional bank products. And they want transparency and trust in the market.

Today, those conditions are not in place. So we need to set this right, starting with securitisation.

The current Commission proposal is a step forward, but we all know this will not move the needle. If the text remains as it is, Europe will be the global exception, limiting its own market, shooting itself in the foot. And we will be having this exact same discussion 5 to 10 years from now.

Or look at product labeling. Retail investors in Europe don’t just need protection. They need clarity and confidence. A proper labelling framework, focused on EU-based products, could help shift capital to where it’s needed. Let’s be clear: there is no shortage of money. But capital only flows where there is opportunity and where there is a system that works.

Right now, we are not offering that. Others are. That has to change. That is our opportunity. As banks, we are ready to play our role, both as a lender and in the capital markets. We are close to savers, investors, and businesses. We account for 70 per cent of corporate financing in the EU and we would like nothing more than to take on an even more proactive role.

Second priority: we need to overcome market fragmentation.

We talk about a single market, but in capital and liquidity, we still behave like 27 different ones. The Banking Union, the second core pillar of the Savings and Investments Union, is still not complete. Capital remains trapped behind national borders. Liquidity does not flow freely. We lack a sufficient number of strong, cross-border players who can safeguard Europe’s financial sovereignty. This has to change.

A fragmented financial system cannot support an integrated economy. A Union without a real Banking Union will always fall short of what it could be. We need to enable better capital circulation across the EU. That includes having an honest discussion about creating a tailored regime for pan-European banks.

We also need to close the gaps in crisis management, before we start investing time in topics like the European Deposit Insurance Scheme, that may still be out of reach politically.

Right now, there is no credible liquidity backstop for large bank failures. That creates uncertainty and weakens the mechanism for managing systemic banking crises across borders. Let’s move forward where we can. Let’s act where there is impact. Because without action, the Banking Union will remain stuck and so will Europe’s financial and investment power.

The Savings and Investments Union is how we win back control of our economic future. It is the foundation for growth, for innovation and for European resilience. But for it to succeed, we need commitment and courage at every level.

We need a Capital Markets Union and a Banking Union with strong actors.
Actors that can take responsibility for investing the economic race we are running.

We need a level playing field that allows for fair competition. Because if US banks don’t have to apply Basel norms, where is the level playing field? We need Member States that recognise the strength of both local and European actors and are ready to think European and to harmonise legislation where needed. That also means that as long as we continue gold-plating, and juggling 27 different tax and insolvency regimes, we will never have a true single market.

We also need supervisors who are principled in their words and pragmatic in their actions. Supervisors who are ready to weigh the full impact of their decisions, not only on financial stability, but also on our investment and innovation potential. Stability is essential. But when capital requirements go far beyond what’s needed for that stability, they start eating into the firepower of banks to finance the innovation race we have  to run. And we risk losing that race to China and the United States.

A Europe that cannot invest in itself will lose its grip on the world. That is the real risk we face. We have the savings. We have the reports. We have the ideas. We have the brains and the people. Now we need the instruments.