00:00Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
00:30It's a real pleasure to have you on the show, Verena.
00:32Thank you very much, Angelo. It's a pleasure to be here.
00:34Now, ESMA's key mission is to enhance investor protection,
00:38promote orderly financial markets and safeguard financial stability.
00:43And you have one very big job on your hands at the moment as part of all this,
00:49which is to try and make Europe's capital markets essentially work more like a single market
00:54instead of 27 partly fragmented national markets.
00:58Can you just elaborate on why it's so important for Europeans,
01:03like what people are essentially missing out on because Europe's capital markets are fragmented?
01:09So if we look at household assets in the European Union,
01:15there are about 37 trillion euros that are sitting largely idle.
01:23people make their own choices.
01:25They want to invest in their own home.
01:27They want to leave some money and cash in the bank.
01:31But there's a lot of capital which is basically not productively invested.
01:36And that is to the detriment both of the people who want their money working for them,
01:42to really want to save for their financial goals,
01:46for their old age protection.
01:48And it's also a problem for companies who are looking for financing.
01:53We need to make sure that we are able to live up to the speed of innovation,
01:59to the speed of developments in markets globally,
02:01and that we position Europe well.
02:05We are clearly stronger together.
02:07We need to make sure that we find European solutions
02:10rather than going back into our national markets and trying to solve issues at national level.
02:17We really need to put all our force together
02:19to make sure that as Europe, we can really compete at a global level.
02:30Now, the Capital Markets Union has recently been rebranded as the Savings and Investment Union.
02:37Why the rebrand?
02:39So there was the idea that, you know, talking about capital markets is very abstract.
02:43it's quite technical, but when you talk about savings,
02:48everyone knows what savings are.
02:50And if you talk about converting that into investments,
02:53that's again something which speaks to people.
02:56So I believe there is a general need to recognize that capital needs to flow as freely
03:03as people can flow within the European Union.
03:05We don't have borders.
03:07You can work wherever you want.
03:08You can invest wherever you want.
03:09And we need to ensure that investors, that citizens feel that they can, you know,
03:15make their money work wherever they happen to be based and wherever they want to invest.
03:21And so that kind of borderless market is really what we need to focus on.
03:26So compared to the U.S., you know,
03:28do you think that there is that lack of financial education in Europe?
03:32In general, in Europe, people are probably slightly less financially literate,
03:38but that is not because they don't have the intelligence or the wish to learn about it.
03:44It's more the fact that in America, because you don't have state guaranteed pay-as-you-go pension schemes,
03:51anyone who works and who needs to think about his old age needs to directly be engaged in thinking about
04:02investing in capital markets.
04:04In Europe, that's not necessarily the case.
04:06And I believe that we as Europeans need to be sure that we ask ourselves the right questions at the
04:13beginning of our careers.
04:14How can I make sure that I use my money to the best effect?
04:18Even if it's not very much on a monthly basis,
04:22it can still make a difference if you invest that in a product or that in the long term will
04:29provide you with a decent return.
04:31Indeed. And Verena, there seems to be a misconception there that you need a lot of money to invest.
04:36But what would you say to that?
04:37I think what we actually see in many European countries is that when you create that right framework and environment,
04:46you can actually see real differences in how the prospects for investors and companies change.
04:53You see, for example, in Sweden, they've made quite significant reforms 10, 15 years ago to their pension system,
05:01to their taxation system and to the whole ecosystem around investing and funding that has really made a difference
05:10and has made now investors in Sweden much more financially literate, much more engaged in capital markets
05:18and also giving them returns from the capital market investments that maybe they started 10 or 15 years ago.
05:26At the same time, we see that the capital markets are quite vibrant there because you have actually companies going
05:34to the markets
05:35because they know there are investors that are interested.
05:39Similarly, we see in some countries at the moment a real uptick in looking at digital service providers
05:46to maybe invest a bit, putting 5 or 10 euros aside.
05:50You know, you can actually start with something quite small potentially and still see that developing.
05:57But you also need to make sure that you are actually well informed when you take those decisions,
06:02that you understand the risks, the costs and the opportunities that come with investing in capital markets.
06:08So we need more easily digestible information.
06:12We need more comparative sites that allows each of us to take the informed decisions that we need to take
06:19about our money.
06:20And Verena, how concerned are you about the rise of what they call Finfluencers, financial influencers,
06:26giving investment advice on social media?
06:29We all live in a world where social media is becoming more important
06:33and Finfluencers, so the people who are trying to influence on finance matters,
06:39can play an important role to help investors get information.
06:43What we have done as ESMA was to also make sure that we alert investors to the fact that, you
06:50know,
06:50they need to be conscious these people might just be providing their personal opinions,
06:56they might not really be experts and they might be sponsored by companies without properly declaring that.
07:02And so you never quite know what is behind that kind of advice or that view that is provided,
07:08which, by the way, is not proper advice.
07:12It is a personal opinion most of the time.
07:14We've also done some work to try to explain to Finfluencers that they need themselves to be careful
07:22in how they interact on social media on financial matters to protect investors
07:28and make sure that they get the advice and the support that they need,
07:33but in a way that is properly regulated and that ensures that they get fair, clear and not misleading information.
07:41Verena, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show
07:44and thank you very much for sharing all of your excellent insights with us.
07:48Thank you very much, Angela. It's been a pleasure.
07:50It's been a pleasure.
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