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This chapter proposes a system for EU centralization of scrutiny and approval of public offers of securities or of listing of companies mature enough to conduct an IPO or those that seek a listing following a secondary offer. It first discusses the European Securities and Markets Authority's unique presence in the EU regulatory edifice and the true ambit and interpretation of its powers. It then sets out the preferred architecture and ambit for a possible European Listing Authority and Capital Markets Union–Securities and Exchange Commission (CMU–SEC), and the advantages their establishment could bring to the CMU project. Next, it discusses the legality of a possible CMU–SEC and brings the different strands of the present analysis into a comprehensive solution.

In line with the European Commission's wish to create fully integrated European capital markets, its Capital Markets Union (CMU) Action Plan is intended to make it easier for providers and receivers of funds to come into contact with one another within Europe, especially across borders. This book discusses various aspects of CMU from a legal and/or economic perspective. The chapters are grouped in a thematic way, covering the following areas: (i) general aspects, (ii) Brexit, (iii) financing innovation, (iv) raising capital on the capital markets, (v) fostering retail and institutional investment, (vi) leveraging banking capacity to support the wider economy, and (vii) facilitating cross-border investing. This chapter outlines some general aspects of CMU that are not explicitly covered by the other chapters in this book: (1) the CMU objectives, (2) the EBU–CMU relationship, (3) regulatory burden, and (4) Better Regulation and the Call for Evidence.

Non-performing loans (‘NPLs’) are bank loans that are subject to late repayment or are unlikely to be repaid by the borrower. The chapter refers to the debilitating NPL crisis between 2010 and 2017 which hit the EU, especially the eurozone banking sector. Today the highest levels of NPLs are observed in the Economic and Monetary Union periphery (Greece, Cyprus, Portugal). Once a bank asset is recognized as non-performing, a number of options are open to the bank from renegotiating the exposure to completely writing it off. Recovery will take place either by restructuring the debt contract or from the open market if the bank sells the asset or liquidates the requisite collateral. Loss is minimized where the legal system is functioning in a way that makes loan recovery and asset disposal procedures not very burdensome. High levels of NPLs can weigh on bank solvency, financial stability, and economic growth. The EU bodies and the European banking union authorities have set out ambitious goals for further reduction of NPLs on a pan-European basis through the EU Action Plan for NPLs.

This chapter offers a critical overview of the issues that the European Union 27 (EU-27) will face in the context of making proper use of financial innovation to further market integration and risk sharing in the internal financial market, both key objectives of the drive to build a Capital Markets Union. Among these is the paradigm shift signalled by a technological revolution in the realm of finance and payments, which combines advanced data analytics and cloud computing (so-called FinTech). The chapter begins with a critical analysis of financial innovation and FinTech. It then traces the EU market integration efforts and explains the restrictive path of recent developments. It considers FinTech's potential to aid EU market integration and debates the merits of regulation dealing with financial innovation in the context of building a capital markets union in EU-27.