The Road to Growth - Guiding Principles for a Capital Markets Union

In the political guidelines for the next EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker pledges to create a European Capital Markets Union in order to improve the financing of the European economy and in order to further integrate capital markets. This paper lays down Deutsches Aktieninstitut’s perspective on what should be the guiding principles of a proper functioning Capital Markets Union. Our key message is that the perspective on capital markets regulation has to be changed: capital markets, if properly regulated, are not an obstacle but a solution for growth. The new regulatory perspective should therefore better reflect the needs of non-financial companies seeking finance or risk management services. The paper illustrates the guiding idea with a number of recent or upcoming pieces of capital markets legislation.