Creating jobs and finding new ways to support investment must be the response of the financial sector to economic and political uncertainties, EIB President Werner Hoyer told around 1000 international delegates from the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) in Luxembourg. He pledged full support for the Capital Markets Union, joining key political and financial figures at the conference, including Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and Martin Scheck, ICMA Chief Executive.
President Hoyer stressed that the current political climate required a co-ordinated response across Europe: “We can see more than ever in these times of elections, political uncertainty and Brexit negotiations that we have to think and develop the instruments necessary to secure economic growth and stability for the European citizens, and inclusive conditions. We have to strengthen our impact and provide tangible value added in the real economy, and to do that we need to harmonize financial conditions across the Union.”
In his keynote address to the ICMA Dr Hoyer also pledged the EU Bank’s full support for the European Commission’s Action Plan to build the key components of a Capital Markets Union by 2019. He underlined the EIB’s role in this effort: “The EIB Group, as the European financial arm of the Member States, active in the financial markets in all forms, fully adheres to the goals of the Capital Markets Union (CMU), working closely with all partners involved in the private and public sectors to enhance our cooperation and ensure more financial integration.“
Integrated financial markets in the EU are necessary in Hoyer’s view to mobilise capital for the real economy. “Our ultimate goal is to secure the creation of additional jobs and economic growth in every European member state and every region.”
The growing importance of sustainable finance was also on the agenda, with debate dedicated to the growing green bond market, pioneered by the EIB 10 years ago. It makes an important contribution to tackle climate change. ”I am happy to say that the EIB as the EU bank, and its peers, the multilateral development banks, have played a catalytic role in promoting the Green Bond market”, President Hoyer said. The MDBs provided the bulk of issuance and a significant part of the standard setting, in the eight years it took to raise the first $100 billion in Green Bonds. But then once the market was established, it took only a little more than a year to raise the second $100 billion.
“Now, with Asian and sovereign issuers also entering the market, we expect this sustained growth to continue”, Hoyer added. “It is precisely this structural shift in the Green Bond market, its size and the number of issuers and investors involved, which we view as another evidence of our success in removing barriers and mobilizing private capital for long-term, sustainable projects.”
ICMA press release: http://www.icmagroup.org/assets/documents/Media/Press-releases-2017/ICMA-meets-in-Luxembourg-020517.pdf
Photographer: Shirin Wheeler ©EIB
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