Capital Markets Union – how will it help SME funding?

The Capital Markets Union project was announced in July 2014 by EU Commission President Juncker and it seeks to remove barriers to the free flow of capital in Europe, and increase the role that market-based finance plays in intermediating capital to European companies.

The desired goals of the CMU aim to complete the integration of the EU´s single market, reinvigorate economic growth but equally ensure European capital markets are as integrated as the US.

CMU provides a fundamental opportunity to move away from an over-concentration on credit-institution led funding channels to market-based financing.

This guide aims to provide a first glance at the CMU initiatives across the market players: From money to markets; from securities to investors; from players to regulators. How financing reaches SME, how SME gets access to the alternative routes for credit and equity. This is the beginning of many initiatives to come but the final step of a vast harmonisation and convergence commitment of the Union during the last decade.
Curra Munuera, Partner, CMS Spain