Spaniards, among the Europeans who invest the least in capital markets

• The average amount of money per adult allocated to stocks, funds, bonds and others is 31,039 euros, 36% below the EU average.
• The calling of elections has slowed the launch of an investment account to encourage resources to be invested in Europe.
• Spain is one of the countries where savers have the most money in cash and deposits that yield no return.

Spanish households are among those that invest the least in capital markets (stocks, bonds, pension plans, and investment funds). The average per adult is 31,039 euros, 36% below the European Union (EU) average, which is 48,290 euros. And at a much greater distance from Denmark (116,334), Sweden (114,028), and the Netherlands (113,248). All three are countries with much more tradition for these investments and higher living standards than in Spain. These figures come from a study conducted by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME, which brings together banks, brokers, and financial institutions), where it highlights the need to boost the participation of households in European capital markets to mobilize savings towards productive investment and reinforce the European commitment to strategic autonomy.

This is one of the objectives of the European investment account, created to prevent a large part of the Old Continent's savings from financing United States companies to strengthen American competitiveness. But with the calling of elections, the regulation of this product is pending approval by the Spanish government. In the public consultation conducted by the Ministry of Economy regarding this savings instrument, it was explained that several countries already had it, such as Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Sweden.

The Draghi report on European competitiveness already warned that a significant part of the savings of European families is not invested in the economy of the European Union, but is diverted to the financial markets of the United States. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, recalled in one of her speeches that, every year, about 300 billion euros of European savings fuel the capital markets of the United States. This diversion of resources is due to the fragmentation of European capital markets and the lack of a mechanism to channel these funds towards innovation and the community's productive fabric. The planned investment instrument, in addition to offering greater profitability to private investors and tax advantages, also seeks to ensure that these resources remain in Europe to finance companies and economies.

In Spain, there is enough room to incentivize this type of investment. Spanish households are among those that rely most on cash and bank deposits, where they have 34% of their savings, above Italy (25%) or France (28%), although below Germany (37%), according to the AFME report. Accounts are assets with low yields and even with loss of value, since bank accounts, where around one trillion euros are deposited, pay little more than 0%, with inflation currently standing at 4.9%. At the European level, the amount exceeds 10 trillion euros, equivalent to one third of all financial assets of European families. In contrast, in the United States, almost two thirds are invested in capital markets.

According to the AFME report, the savings of European households invested in capital markets have been practically stagnant for the last decade. In 2017 it was an average of about 46,000 euros and now it is about 48,000. And this figure is very far from the 253,000 euros in the United States or the 71,000 in the United Kingdom, with figures adjusted for the cost of living.

In the end, according to AFME, although the volume of savings in the EU is high, "an insufficient portion is channeled into instruments that can support the financing of companies, innovation, and long-term projects". And this, according to this organization, means that "European companies have fewer capital pools than many of their international competitors", whether they are from the United States or China.