The Governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, recently spoke to discuss a very important subject. This involves mobilizing the private savings of Europeans to respond to the economic and financial challenges of the European Union.
Questions surrounding private savings
In an interview with BFM Business, François Villeroy de Galhau first welcomed the speech by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, delivered at the Davos forum.
He confided: “She said that we Europeans will stick to our values, to the rules of law. Simply, we have to be more offensive in the way we defend them. And then she drew a Europe's agenda for changeaccelerating growth and innovation in Europe ».
This intervention was also an opportunity for François Villeroy de Galhau to underline the importance of collective control by Europeans. According to him, “the fate of Europeans does not depend only on the Americans and the Chinese”.
To read
Good news from CAF for 70% of French people in precarious situations who do not request aid
He also insisted on the need for good “activate the levers we have in Europe” to finance the Union's growing needs. François Villeroy de Galhau also highlighted quite a worrying thing.
Despite “abundant” private savings, a large part of it is invested outside Europe. He recalled that “300 billion euros of European savings will be invested outside Europe, and first in the United States”.
According to him, this phenomenon is explained by the absence of sufficiently efficient European capital markets and strong financial intermediation, as is the case in the United States. He then did a very clear proposal on the subject.
-“Let’s get this 300 billion back”
The main interested party proposed on private savings: “Let’s recover these 300 billion to meet the investment needs we have in Europe”. And this, with the aim of using it for “our assets”.
Europe faces big challenges. And this, whether in ecological transition, technological innovation, artificial intelligence. Or even defense and security. On the other hand, as highlighted in a report from the General Directorate of the Treasury published in April 2024, “neither public budgets nor bank balance sheets will be able to support this large-scale investment effort”.
To read
Leclerc: the brand urgently recalls throughout France this product full of pesticides, this concerns jars of mushrooms
Mobilizing private savings therefore seems to be one of the last resorts to finance these ambitions. François Villeroy de Galhau thus spoke of the creation of a European label. And this for savings products invested locally or the issuance of European bonds as potential avenues.
One of the projects mentioned is that of a “Savings and Investment Union”. It would aim to create a single financing market in Europe. This project would aim to harmonize tax regulations between Member States, a major obstacle to date.
With this initiative, the governor believes that the best of what the Americans achieve, that is to say finance at the service of the economy, we can do in Europe”.
