More finance, less friction: simplifying EU financial regulation and strengthening supervision
Europe’s financial system stands at a critical juncture. As the EU seeks to mobilise savings, deepen capital markets and strengthen its global competitiveness, an important question has emerged: how can Europe preserve financial stability while reducing the frictions created by excessive regulatory complexity and fragmented supervision? The new CEPS-ECMI-ECRI Task Force report, ‘More finance, less friction’, tackles precisely this conundrum.
The report argues that the EU’s challenge is no longer a lack of rules, but the growing difficulty of operating an extensive rulebook as a coherent single-market system. Layered legislation, duplicative reporting requirements, delayed technical standards and uneven supervisory practices increasingly hamper investment, innovation and cross-border scale. Europe must also ensure that any reform agenda remains anchored in resilience, consumer protection and market integrity.
This event will discuss the report’s key findings and recommendations, focusing on how the EU can simplify its financial rulemaking and strengthen supervisory structures. The debate will examine how to reduce regulatory layering, improve impact assessments and ex-post evaluations, limit supervisory fragmentation, enhance the role and accountability of the European Supervisory Authorities and better align oversight with the realities of increasingly integrated financial markets. It will also consider how the Savings and Investment Union agenda can be translated into practical institutional reforms that support deeper, more competitive and more resilient EU financial markets. Join us to explore how the EU can achieve more finance with less friction.
12:00-13:00 Registration and lunch
13:00-13:05 Welcoming remarks
- Karel Lannoo, CEO, CEPS and General Manager, ECMI
13:05-13:25 Keynote speech
- John Berrigan, Deputy Director-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, DG FISMA, European Commission
13:25-14:30 Panel discussion
- Petra Hielkema, Chairperson, EIOPA
- José Antonio Álvarez, Vice Chair, Banco Santander and Chair of the Task Force
- More speakers tbc
Moderated by CEPS.