Promoting Savings and Investments Accounts in the EU: Flexibility and incentives for investors are key success factors

Savings and investments accounts (ISAs) are securities accounts that are subject to special taxation. As experiences from Sweden and other countries show, they are an important component in strengthening savings with shares, equity funds, ETFs and other securities. In order to make ISAs attractive, access should be as simple as possible, appropriate tax incentives should be granted, and there should be no guarantees on payouts or restrictions, e.g. with regard to holding periods or investment limits. Deutsches Aktieninstitut draws attention to these basic principles with this contribution to a consultation by the EU Commission on the design of ISAs.