Securitisation is back on the agenda. The question is whether the EU will use it properly

Brussels is no longer asking whether securitisation should return – that question has already been answered. The European Commission tabled reform, the Council has agreed its position, and the European Parliament is shaping its own. The real question now is whether the EU will use this moment to build a better market or settle for a technical clean-up of an underused one.

The timing isn’t accidental. The revival of securitisation sits at the heart of the Savings and Investments Union (SIU), the EU’s attempt to mobilise private capital at scale. The logic is straightforward: Europe doesn’t lack savings. It lacks efficient channels to turn those savings into productive investment.

That gap is especially visible in credit markets, where the EU remains heavily dependent on bank balance sheets to finance households, small businesses and infrastructure. As capital requirements tighten, risks become more complex, and investment needs continue to rise, that model is coming under growing strain.

Apostolos Thomadakis is Head of Research at ECMI, and Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Financial Markets and Institutions Unit at CEPS. This commentary is based on the CEPS-ECMI study ‘More credit, better risk sharing: why Europe needs securitisation’.