Europe is clearly losing momentum and competitiveness here: the market share of the six major US investment banks in Europe towards their six major European competitors has increased from 44% to 58% in the last seven years. Moreover, larger groups could invest more in the key challenge of digital transformation: as most of the investment costs are fixed, size is a decisive advantage. But not only the largest, all other institutions will benefit from the increased depth of the market, allowing to reap the fruits of their competitive advantages in a larger market. At the macro level – and I say this as a central banker –, Banking Union would decisively enhance private risk sharing within Europe. The political discussion and energy remain primarily focused on public stabilisation mechanisms, such as a possible common fiscal capacity. Let me stress that private stabilisers are just as important and efficient, and less divisive. Banking Union would enable, in conjunction with progress towards a Capital Market Union, a better 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  channelling of our abundant savings through a genuine “Financing Union for Investment and Innovation“. How to move forward again. The first obvious fact is that we should neither relax now that the banking crisis is mostly over, nor wait for the next crisis to act. It is precisely because we are not in a crisis situation that we should move forward now.
I am conscious that bankruptcy regimes, often mentioned in the framework of the CMU, represent a legal challenge. Let us see how we could at least progress on this issue for bank bankruptcies. This work may be focused on the more essential points to facilitate consistency with the resolution tools, like treatment of depositors/creditors hierarchy. 4. The need for an integrated approach to new players. Finally, looking forward now, let me consider broader developments in the financial sphere. Recent trends in financial innovation have fuelled the emergence of a renewed financial intermediation ecosystem, involving new players – including tech companies, be they FinTechs or BigTechs. The associated technological disruptions have resulted in regulatory arbitrage practices, especially on the banking market. Lending activities by non-bank financial intermediaries also circumvent prudential regulation. I wish to stress a major point here: we must avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Innovation must not translate into further fragmentation. Right from the start we should try to have an integrated supervision at the European level for new players and new technologies. Regarding innovation, private initiatives do have their role to play in fostering a European integration. Here, let me commend the European Payments Initiative (EPI) project. The EPI will provide citizens with a unified, innovative and autonomous European payment solution, as an alternative to the dominant and extra-European players already established in Europe or the BigTechs in the future. We must support the emergence of such Pan-European projects, in order to preserve and reinforce our financial sovereignty.