On 7 May 2026, Commissioner for Financial Services Maria Luís Albuquerque, in a keynote speech at the joint European Commission-European Central Bank conference on European Financial Integration, argued that the EU banking sector remains too fragmented and lacks the scale to compete globally, calling for ambitious reforms including a completed Banking Union. She stressed that maintaining the status quo is not an option and that nothing is off the table, including microprudential, macroprudential, and resolution requirements.
Albuquerque noted that the EU banking sector is profitable and resilient, with strong capital and liquidity buffers, but said competitiveness is hampered by fragmentation across national borders. She outlined that a competitive banking sector must be resilient, efficient, innovative, and capable of allocating capital productively. The Commissioner highlighted that over 200 contributions were received through a consultation on EU bank competitiveness, which will inform a forthcoming report on the state of the banking system due before summer 2026, followed by a banking package in the first quarter of 2027.
The speech builds on the Savings and Investments Union (SIU) launched in March 2025, which includes measures on financial literacy, savings and investment accounts, supplementary pensions, and equity financing for pension funds and insurers. Albuquerque also referenced the Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP) from December 2025, which aims to remove cross-border obstacles in trading, post-trading, and asset management, and to move supervision of significant market infrastructure and crypto-asset service providers to ESMA. She noted the 'One Europe One Market' roadmap agreed by all EU institutions two weeks prior, setting the stage to finalise SIU proposals by end of 2026.
Albuquerque emphasised that a stronger and more integrated Single Market, including a stronger financial sector, can build economic defences against external shocks, citing recent energy price shocks and stagflationary concerns. She argued that the current geoeconomic context is the new normal and that over-reliance on others has left the EU exposed. The Commissioner stressed that competitiveness and stability must go hand in hand, and that the EU must safeguard a level playing field while ensuring banks are not disadvantaged by international standards implementation.
EU banks would benefit from reduced fragmentation and greater scale, enabling them to compete globally, but may face increased compliance costs from new requirements. EU consumers and businesses would gain improved access to diverse financing and innovative services at lower cost. National authorities may see reduced supervisory powers as more oversight moves to ESMA. EU regulators like ESMA would gain increased authority over significant market infrastructure and crypto-asset service providers.