European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote speech by Commissioner Albuquerque at Florence's School of Banking and Finance Annual Conference: The EU Savings and Investment Union: Opportunities for European Savers and European Companies Florence, 5 March 2026 Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon. It is a real pleasure to be here at the Florence School of Banking and Finance, celebrating its 10th anni...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote speech by Commissioner Albuquerque at Florence's School of Banking and Finance Annual Conference: The EU Savings and Investment Union: Opportunities for European Savers and European Companies Florence, 5 March 2026 Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon. It is a real pleasure to be here at the Florence School of Banking and Finance, celebrating its 10th anniversary — and doing so at the European University Institute as it marks 50 years of academic excellence and European reflection. There is a certain symmetry in discussing the future of finance here in Florence, where the Medici designed the blueprints of banking and finance. It's the perfect backdrop for our conversation today. When we look back at the origins of the Florence School of Banking and Finance, we see a school built not just out of academic ambition, but out of true European necessity. In the years following the financial crisis, as we moved toward reinforcing the EU regulatory and institutional framework, policymakers at the time rightly recognised a fundamental challenge ahead: the need to build a truly common culture around banking and finance across the European Union. Today, this institution provides a welcomed space for policymakers, supervisors, practitioners and academics to do just that - to come together from diverse backgrounds to discuss the future of finance in Europe. Over the past decade, policymakers have focused predominantly on crisis management and financial stability. This allowed Europe to build one of the most resilient banking systems in the world. But focus on resilience, while essential, is not enough. Our financial sector must do more than preserve stability. In Europe we have ambitious goals, including in moving to a net-zero economy, scaling our digital capabilities, and bolstering our European defence, but ambition without the means to make it happen is a wish, not a goal. Through the Savings and Investments Union, we are working to take the integration of Europe's financial sector to the next level. We are aiming to unleash the full potential of a truly integrated European financial market that efficiently pools liquidity to finance our strategic goals. We are sharpening our competitive edge and building an economy that can shape, and sustain, our success. This is what I would like to discuss with you today. Ladies and gentlemen, we have heard it from every corner and at the highest level of European policymaking since the beginning of this Commission mandate – Europe must work to become more competitive at a global stage. This is a vision we all share, and it is the grounds for the SIU strategy that we have been delivering upon over recent months. We have issued proposals on securitisation, on financial literacy, on supplementary pensions and savings and investments accounts, and, most recently, a major legislative package on market integration and supervision. Taken together, these measures are designed to create a financing ecosystem that works as a virtuous circle. An ecosystem where Europeans can identify and seize investment opportunities, even by investing small amounts, and do so simply and with confidence. Where European companies can access financing here at home, giving them the means to scale, innovate and compete globally. And ultimately, one where barriers between national financial systems fall away, allowing a truly European market to emerge. That would mark a decisive step forward for Europe, a transformation rather than an incremental adjustment. This would close the circle and deliver tangible benefits for citizens and businesses across our Union. The SIU, when you drill down to the core of it, is about creating efficiency that can lead to scale. And I would like to elaborate on this point - on scale. Europe is not small – but when it comes to our financial markets, we often act small. We are one of the largest economies in the world, but in capital markets, we behave like 27 small ones. When a European company wants to raise serious growth capital, it doesn't get the benefit of one deep home market. A continent that saves more than almost anyone else in the world should not struggle to finance its own growth companies. Scale is what gives markets confidence. It allows companies to raise capital without looking abroad, and it allows shocks to be absorbed rather than amplified. And scale in our capital markets is more important today. Ten years ago, market fragmentation was inefficiency, now our market fragmentation is vulnerability. If Europe wants to strengthen its competitiveness, then our financial system must be up to the task. When access to capital is simpler and more seamless, costs fall, investment rises, and companies can grow faster. The Market Integration and Supervision Package, adopted in December, was built with one principle at its core: efficiency . And efficiency in the EU's capital markets means one thing above all - removing the barriers that stand in the way of the creation of large liquidity pools, seamlessly accessible across Member States to finance productive opportunities. It means eliminating obstacles that prevent market participants from building scale, competing effectively, and operating across borders. It means eliminating barriers to innovation, including distributed ledger technology. And it means addressing inconsistencies in supervision that allow for protectionism and undermine trust. This package delivers an ambitious reform of how our capital markets operate, and it does so with a broad, coherent approach. It touches on 18 pieces of legislation, but it is not a collection of separate proposals. It has been designed as a single, mutually reinforcing framework, where each measure strengthens the next. European leaders have been clear about the need for a more integrated capital market. This package delivers a way forward to turn that political commitment into concrete action. But ambition on paper is not enough. There is a clear urgency to move forward — and to move forward differently. If we continue to approach integration incrementally, we will continue to achieve incremental results, at best. The reality is that our current level of fragmentation is inefficient and costly. It raises financing costs for companies, limits returns for savers and weakens our global competitiveness. To reach a fundamentally different outcome, we must be prepared to act in a fundamentally different way — with greater coordination, stronger political ownership and a genuine commitment from all Member States. Because the cost of inaction compounds over time. Every day we delay, opportunities are lost, capital flows elsewhere, and Europe falls further behind. In the Commission, we stand ready to work closely with the co-legislators to secure an agreement that is ambitious, forward-looking and true to its purpose. We can not afford to let this file be diluted at the final hour. If we reduce it to the lowest common denominator, we will lose the very efficiencies it is designed to create. Its success will be measured against three standards: speed, ambition and integrity . Speed, because the world will not wait for us. Ambition, because our response must be a match to the challenges of our time. And integrity, because this package only delivers if it is adopted as a coherent whole. If we pull it apart into isolated elements, we weaken its impact. Of course, some Member States may wish to move faster or go further. That discussion may come. But our first effort must be collective. It must be ambitious, united, and comprehensive. That is where the real return lies. That is where Europe gains scale. That is where the strength of the single market lies. And that is how we deliver lasting results. And while we need collective action at EU level, the Savings and Investments Union also depends upon action at Member State level. For this vision to work, the collective action we take at the EU level must be mirrored by focused efforts at the national level. I have visited 21 Member States at this point, and I intend to have visited all 27 before the summer. In every capital, I've found a shared conviction: we all want our citizens to be more financially resilient and to have better access to the investment products that build long-term wealth. With our recommendations published on the Savings and Investment Accounts or on supplementary pensions, the priority now is for Member States to weave these goals into national frameworks. The SIU isn't something we can build from the centre alone – it is a shared project that depends on Member States turning our collective ambition into tangible progress – and I am looking forward to seeing this progress in the coming months. But, ladies and gentlemen, the Savings and Investments Union is about more than capital markets, it takes a holistic approach to our financial system, including both capital markets and banks. Today, our banks are better capitalised, better supervised and better prepared to withstand shocks than at any moment in recent history. They proved their strength during the pandemic, during the energy crisis and remained stable amid banking turmoil observed elsewhere. They have also successfully passed a series of rigorous stress tests, confirming the strength and credibility of our framework. Preserving this resilience is crucial. It is both our first and last line of defence in ensuring that taxpayers remain out of the picture when it comes to financial stability. When we think about the role of the banking sector, as the role of the capital markets, we should however not focus exclusively on financial stability but also think about competitiveness. In financial markets, competitiveness and stability are not opposing forces - rather they are mutually reinforcing. To that end, we have launched a broad consultation on banking competitiveness which will feed into a report to be published later this year. Our consultation is all encompassing and seeks evidence-based feedback on what may constitute an impediment to the competitiveness of our banking sector. It covers everything from prudential and supervisory frameworks, crisis management, and governance, to digitalisation, proportionality, financing, fragmentation and persisting barriers to cross border services and the completion of the Banking Union. I would like to elaborate on one or two of these areas. Take fragmentation, for example, potentially the biggest barrier to scale in our banking sector. Europe needs banks that can operate seamlessly throughout the EU, but also internationally. Removing fragmentation coming from various sources (regulatory, supervisory, practical or political) requires a full European effort and needs all Member States to buy-in and let the market achieve its true potential and scale. We also need to address the issue of proportionality on banking regulation. Our report will look at all banks, acknowledging their diversity and the impact stemming from differences in size or business model. Proportionality and diversity are good for the banking sector. We need a few, large and internationally active banks to finance our largest businesses. And we also need small, local banks that ensure proximity to local businesses and households. Ladies and gentlemen, when considering competitiveness, we can no longer assume that yesterday's solutions fit today's problems, and we have to test whether the current framework is fit for purpose. Whilst recognising it merits and the value of its fundamentals, we should also find the courage to ask ourselves whether the approach we put in place in the aftermath of the financial crisis is fully future- proof, or whether the recalibration of certain requirements may be warranted considering global developments. The same goes for EDIS, as the proposal is for many years in a negotiation deadlock being now more than 10 years old and reflecting the thinking at a time when the Banking Union was at its very incipient stage. The reality has changed in the meantime: nowadays, 75 percent of all covered deposits are in banks falling under the Single Resolution Board's direct remit and planned for resolution with sufficient loss absorption capacity. In essence there is full Banking Union solidarity and loss mutualisation for those banks already. Doesn't such development warrant a renewed approach to the third pillar of the Banking Union? We also still observe the risk that banks can be ‘European in life but national in death', with the consequences of a failure being passed on to the national deposit guarantee scheme in the last minute, instead of relying on European safety nets. This increases the perception in many Member States that capital and liquidity need to be ringfenced locally, with implications on the efficiency of capital and liquidity allocation within cross-border banks. If we are serious about competitiveness, we should be ready to rediscuss such issues. Clearly, we need fresh ideas on the table on how the system of deposit insurance can be organised in order to solve all these issues. And they should be future proof. Actually, fresh ideas are welcome across the board in our consultation, and I strongly encourage all of you to participate. We are engaging in genuine discussions and evidence-based problem identification. We are taking a thorough look at our system to identify where change is needed, and we are prepared to act in sufficiently broad terms to elevate Europe's banking sector to the next level. This is a collective exercise, and your input will matter. In the months ahead we must remain absolutely focused on building a Union that is not just resilient, but undeniably competitive. We are living through a period of great geopolitical uncertainty, and this will not be a passing phase, but a lasting shift in our global environment. We must therefore prepare for permanent change. Doing nothing is not a neutral option, it would carry a growing economic and strategic cost. We cannot afford to be overcautious when the world is moving so fast. We must choose bold reform over comfortable inertia — and we must begin now. Because the Savings and Investments Union is not simply a policy project. It is a generational responsibility: to ensure that Europe's savings finance Europe's future, that European ambition finds European capital, and that our Union shapes change rather than react to it Thank you. SPEECH/26/552
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