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Letter to Commissioner McGuinness: Cooperation on open, innovative and sustainable European financial markets

15 Dec 2020
Financial Services
Sustainable Finance

The Financial Services Committee together with the Sustainable Finance Task Force sent a letter to Commissioner Mairead McGuinness congratulating her on her appointment as European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union. AmCham EU, as a unique forum for discussion and advocacy on regulatory and policy matters relating to transatlantic capital markets and mutually beneficial investment for the EU and US, is a strong supporter of dialogue and cooperation between EU and US financial services authorities. Read the letter here

The COVID-19 pandemic presented an unparalleled health crisis, accompanied by unprecedented challenges and economic consequences. Capital markets play a crucial role for the recovery and the transition to a more sustainable economy. Encouraging European policy makers to further promote free flows of capital, AmCham EU’s Financial Services Committee and the Sustainable Finance Task Force outlined key recommendations for the Capital Markets Union, Sustainable Finance, the Banking Union and Digital Finance.

For one, the Capital Markets Union (CMU) agenda should remain a key priority with renewed focus on the creation of open, innovative and sustainable financial markets. Market fragmentation represents an obstacle to cross-border investment and thus to thriving and globally connected capital markets, crucial to the economic recovery. The right signals towards the transition to a more sustainable economy can be provided by the EU’s sustainable finance agenda – capital markets playing a crucial role in mobilising, attracting and activating new pools of investment to drive sustainable innovation. Regulatory certainty and economic stability, evidence-based and data driven policy, and international openness are thus the key priorities of the Sustainable Finance Task Force to tackle the energy and climate transition. Alongside the encouraging and facilitating the adoption of digital business models by financial institutions, the completion of the Banking Union alongside the implementation of the remainder of the Basel package remain additional key areas of AmCham EU.