On the occasion of the 13th conference on the Spanish markets organized by the Association of Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the president of the National Securities and Markets Commission (CNMV), Rodrigo Buenaventura, has commented on his vision of the present and future of the financial situation in Spain.
Buenaventura has defended that the securities markets must be one of the fundamental pillars of the European economic recovery, in the context of transformation to an economic model that is more respectful of the environment and social sensitivities. A process that, according to estimates by the European Commission, will involve approximately 350 billion euros. In the case of Spain, 30 billion will be necessary over the next 8 years, together with the rest of the investments, to meet the objectives of transformation to a digital and sustainable economy.
In reference to the invasion of Ukraine and the economic consequences derived from it, the president of the CNMV highlighted its impact in promoting some of the investments that our economies will require in the future: increasing the pace of the transition to a sustainable energy model, new expenses in defense and strategic investments.
All this increases the need for capital markets to have liquidity and the capacity to finance these challenges according to Buenaventura, who has highlighted the Capital Markets Union (CMU), an initiative of the European Commission to create a single market for capital and protect the Eurozone against future crises
“It is a fact that other EU members have markets that are growing more vibrantly,” said Buenaventura. A problem that the president of the CNMV attributes to multiple factors, such as the different corporate cultures, the lack of more active investment firms in the sector or an institutional and investment tradition of pension funds in domestic markets.
On the regulation of capital markets, Buenaventura stresses the importance of this issue at present, since we are in a change of economic cycle. The rapporteur has indicated that for two years we have been in a decline from which the measures that are carried out will be essential to tackle the recession.
For the president of the CNMV, the solution is to encourage the EU’s capital markets so that companies can finance the huge investments necessary to balance their structures. This implies streamlining and simplifying market access processes without weakening investor protection, “a delicate decision that requires a very careful balance” in the words of Buenaventura, for whom this balance is necessary to avoid deregulation such as the one preceded the last financial crisis.
