FINANCING GROWTH

The European financial system exists for a reason: to meet the needs of European companies, investors and savers and citizens. Wherever they are, whatever their size and type, companies and investors and savers must have access to the financing they need.

Ten years after the crisis, we believe that it is time to stop seeing the financial sector merely as a bundle of risks that has to be managed and regulated, but to see it and treat it for what it is: a true enabler of growth and allow it and supervised.

Its key function is to intermediate funds from savers to investors and thus support growth. Our goal is to achieve finance to do its potential. job in the face of the severe challenges that our societies are confronted with. This is the only way to realise the EU’s ambitions of economic growth, sustainability and cohesion. But also, and to reinforce its competitive edge in a global environment. Europe needs a Banking and Capital Markets Union which works at different levels of access – local, regional and pan-European – in a seamless and fully integrated way.

Close to 90% of all EU firms are satisfied with the financing they receive across all categories: with regard to quantity, duration, cost and collateral. The rate of SMEs constrained by finance has halved, and SME access to bank lending has improved for the fifth consecutive year since 2012. Bank lending also continues to be important for large companies, as well, with half of them using banks loans or overdrafts to finance their activities.

Find out more about how banks are driving Europe’s economic growth in Facts & Figures.

Understanding the challenges that finance will face in achieving this future, the EBF has established the Steering Committee for Financing Growth acting with a team looking deliberately and in depth to all the core issues of importance for European banks with a clear mandate to:

Ensure that European bank-financing continues to meet the needs of European companies to grow and generate jobs;
Increase market-based financing, as a complement to bank finance, to serve economic growth while also providing greater opportunities for banks engaged in capital markets/investment banking business;
Increase and diversify opportunities for individuals as users of financial services to invest, whether through banks or markets;
Enhance solutions that improve the sustainability of bank- and market-based financing.

Our work in this area is divided into three topics: Business Finance, Markets and Infrastructure and Sustainable/Green Finance.

“Increasing the diversity of financing will generate greater growth,
and improve the resilience of the financial sector.”

Wim MijsEBF CEO

“Completing the Capital Markets Union is an important part of our strategy to boost investment in Europe, to strengthen the recovery and build our future economy.”