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This second edition of AFME’s annual report tracks the progress of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project through eight Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

It is a joint publication with ten trade associations and international organisations representing global and European capital markets stakeholders.

The report includes a country-by-country comparison of individual EU Member State progress against the CMU’s objectives. This year’s report also includes a new indicator measuring how well EU countries are developing their FinTech ecosystems.

Key findings include:

• Europe strengthened its global leadership in sustainable finance - Issuance of sustainable bonds increased 16% in the EU during 2018 to €69bn, an increase of €9bn compared to 2017.
• The EU 27 lags behind on FinTech funding - EU27 FinTech companies have only benefited from $7.2bn in investments (venture capital, seed, angel and private equity) since 2009, compared with $120bn in the US, $23.8bn in China and $20.3bn in the UK. 
• Europe’s reliance on bank lending has increased  - European companies continue to over rely on bank lending, with 88% of their new funding in 2018 coming from banks and only 12% from capital markets – a decline from 14% on average in 2013-2017.    

As the EU begins a new political cycle, there is an increasing focus on the need to further develop the Capital Markets Union. While some of our report’s indicators show a positive trajectory since last year’s results, such as Europe’s global leadership in sustainable finance, it is clear that there is still much work to be done at European and national levels, particularly on making Europe’s capital markets more competitive.

The 2018 first edition of the report can be found here.