A widening equity gap and a subdued securitisation market are clear signs that the European Union is failing to deliver on its ambitious plan to boost the popularity of risk capital and financial markets, a fresh industry report warned on Thursday.
Europe’s equity gap has continued to widen in recent years with the EU’s domestic market capitalisation of listed shares declining to just 10 percent of the world’s total in 2022, compared to 18 percent in 2000. It shows that Europe continues to fall behind the US and UK in the global capital market competitiveness ranking, the study said.
Meanwhile, the report noted that EU securitisation transactions have fallen to the lowest levels on record. The proportion of EU loans outstanding transferred via securitisation and loan portfolio sales fell to 1.6 percent, the lowest value on record and half the value in 2018, when it was 3.2 percent. By contrast, US securitisation issuance grew 74.5 percent during 2020-2021 vs 2017-2019, while EU issuance declined 10.9 percent over the same period.
The report, produced by the Brussels-based Association for Financial Markets in Europe in collaboration with eleven other trade organisations, is a comprehensive assessment of the EU’s ambitions set out under its Capital Markets Union action plan, which in 2015 aspired to boost the component of risk capital in Europe’s debt-finance economy.
‘As vital as ever’
“As European businesses face new pressures from economic uncertainty, rising inflation and energy price shocks, the Capital Markets Union project remains as vital as ever to help deliver funding to the economy,” said Adam Farkas, Afme’s chief executive and former executive at financial supervisor European Banking Authority.
Two key obstacles hampering the progress of the CMU, Afme said. These are the EU’s equity gap, which continues to widen compared to global peers, and the subdued securitisation market, “which remains a material loss to the EU’s financial system”.
“As the EU seeks to compete with other global markets, it is important that the regulatory environment helps to promote the attractiveness of EU markets and grow the EU’s internal capacity,” Farkas said.
Afme’s report noted that socio-economic and geopolitical developments have caused a major reversal of capital markets activity in 2022 compared to the record gains of market-based financing levels of the previous two years. Inflationary pressures, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and combined with monetary tightening and fears of recession following the Covid-19 pandemic, have led to an increase in the cost of capital and created a climate of market uncertainty and volatility more generally.
Market-based funding down 32%
Market-based funding used by corporates dropped to pre-Covid levels - total new debt and equity issuances decreased by 32 percent year-over-year during the first half of 2022, with a particularly steep decline - 86 percent - in EU initial public offerings.
Pre-IPO equity investment in EU SMEs remained strong with 34.3 billion euro in new equity investment flows in the first half of 2022, or 73 percent of the amount invested in 2021. However, a growing challenge for investors is the capacity to exit investments as the IPO market remains subdued and public markets see lower valuations.
European households saw a decline in their savings in the form of capital markets instruments due to deterioration in asset values, the report said.
Also noted: remarkable ESG growth over the last five years – with the amount of EU ESG debt issuance increasing from 61 billion euro in 2017 to 360 billion in 2021.
The report was authored by Afme with the support of the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), as well as European trade associations representing: business angels (BAE, Eban), fund and asset management (Efama), crowdfunding (Eurocrowd), retail and institutional investors (European Investors), publicly quoted companies (EuropeanIssuers), stock exchanges (Fese), venture capital and private equity (InvestEurope), private credit and direct lending (ACC) and pension funds (PensionsEurope).
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