Unfortunately, the initial proposal was watered down and the tax treatment has been fully left to the national authorities’ discretion. Renewed impetus here is vital. Pension reforms that strengthen private retirement savings, and also contribute to the diversification of such savings into equity, would support the process.
14 In 2017, EU households held just 21% of their financial assets in shares and equity, compared with 41% in the United States.15 A second important lever for integration and diversification is to build on the newly adopted European covered bonds directive and to increase efforts to revive the European securitisation market, in particular SME securitisation.