The Savings and Investments Union
Europeans hold about €33 trillion of private savings, and almost a third of household financial wealth sits in bank deposits. The Savings and Investments Union, adopted in March 2025, is the EU's plan to move that money into investment: savings accounts that invest, pensions that auto-enrol, and one capital market instead of 27. This explainer covers what it is, what has actually changed, and how to tell whether it is working.
1What it is trying to do
The EU27 deposit share of household financial assets has been stuck near 30% since 2010. Money in deposits earns little for savers and finances little beyond bank balance sheets; the same money in funds, pensions and equity finances companies. The SIU strategy (COM(2025) 124, 19 March 2025) works four angles at once: citizens and savings, investment, market integration, and supervision.
“The European Union is home to a staggering €33 trillion in private savings, predominantly held in currency and deposits.”
The stakes are set out in the Draghi report: Europe needs €750–800B a year of additional investment by 2030. Public budgets cannot fund that; household savings can. Where the money should go once it moves — and why pension funds are the natural carrier — is the argument of our main savings & pensions analysis.
2From CMU to SIU
The SIU is the second attempt at the same goal. The Capital Markets Union chased it from 2015 with two action plans and three Commissions, and the deposit share never moved. The rebrand in 2025 came with a delivery rhythm.
From CMU to SIU — a decade in the making
2015 – 2024The Capital Markets Union: a decade of drift
Two action plans and three Commissions chased the same goal — one capital market — with little to show: the deposit share never moved.
- Sep 2015CMU Action Plan (Juncker/Hill): 33 actions toward a single capital market by 2019.
- Jun 2017Mid-term review re-launches: covered bonds, the PEPP pan-EU pension, ESA reform.
- Sep 2020CMU Action Plan 2.0: 16 more actions — ESAP, listing rules, ELTIF review.
- Jan 2024ELTIF 2.0 applies: retail finally gets a workable route into private assets.
- Mar 2024Eurogroup statement: finance ministers concede the CMU needs a relaunch.
- Apr 2024Letta report coins the “Savings and Investments Union”: €33T of private savings, mostly parked in deposits.
- Sep 2024Draghi report sizes the gap the savings must fund: €750–800B/yr by 2030.
2025 –The SIU: same goal, quarterly deadlines
The rebrand came with a delivery rhythm — something has shipped every quarter since March 2025.
- Mar 2025SIU strategy adopted (COM(2025) 124): citizens & savings, investment, integration, supervision.
- Jun 2025“Finance Europe” label launched by seven member states; securitisation revival proposed.
- Sep 2025Savings & Investment Accounts blueprint: tax-advantaged, cross-border, plus a financial-literacy strategy.
- Nov 2025Pensions package: auto-enrolment, tracking systems, dashboards; IORP II & PEPP reform.
- Dec 2025Supervision package: direct ESMA supervision of CCPs, CSDs, venues; Retail Investment Strategy deal lands — minus its inducements ban.
- Mar 2026“EU Inc.” 28th-regime company form: pan-EU incorporation online in 48h.
- Q2 2027Mid-term review — the Commission's own deadline for proof that deposits are moving.
3What has changed
Both readings of the SIU are true at once. The machinery is shipping on time, and several of its sharpest parts were blunted on the way through.
It ships every quarter
Unusually for Brussels, something has shipped every quarter since March 2025 — accounts, pensions, securitisation, supervision, company law. EIB President Nadia Calviño frames the goal as getting frameworks in place “to make sure European savings are channelled to where they are most needed: innovative businesses across Europe.”
Retail money is already finding routes into private assets: 159 ELTIF 2.0 funds are registered, and semi-liquid funds have passed €20B.
Watered down, and slow where it matters
The Retail Investment Strategy lost its inducements ban in trilogue, the pensions package is a recommendation rather than law, and supervision reform faces national resistance. CEPS's Karel Lannoo: “The Savings and Investment Union has had a bad start — we need an ‘emergency brake’.”
After a decade of CMU drift, none of the delivery counts until household balance sheets move.
The deepest shift is contractual rather than legislative. The Dutch pension reform (Wtp) moved about €550B from defined-benefit to defined-contribution contracts on 1 January 2026, with full migration due by 2028. Funds that promise less can take more long-term risk — what the SIU does for the volume of savings, Wtp does for its risk appetite.
4How we will know
The Commission set its own deadline: a mid-term review in the second quarter of 2027. The measure that matters is whether household money has moved out of deposits and into productive investment. The EU27 deposit share has sat near 30% of household financial assets since 2010; every action plan so far has failed to move it.
Three numbers to watch between now and then: the deposit share itself (Eurostat financial balance sheets, quarterly), take-up of the new savings and investment accounts once member states implement them, and how many member states turn the auto-enrolment recommendation into national law. The country-by-country picture of where household wealth sits today — deposits versus funds, insurance and pensions — is charted on the main analysis.
What this means
Europe does not lack savings; it lacks the channel between savings and investment. The SIU is the first version of that channel with quarterly deadlines and a self-imposed test. If the deposit share is visibly falling by the Q2 2027 review, it will have done what the CMU could not. Where the money should go once it moves — and what pension funds in particular should do with it — is the argument of the savings & pensions analysis.
Savings, pensions and European innovation
Europe has the money. Very little of it reaches venture. What should change, and who can move first.
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M · How it's built
How this is built
- The timeline and scorecard are hand-maintained against primary announcements — Commission communications, Eurogroup statements, ESMA registers — last reviewed July 2026.
- Deposit-share figures come from Eurostat financial balance sheets (
nasa_10_f_bs, households + NPISH): EU27 deposits ~30% of household financial assets, barely moved since 2010. - This page was split out of the main Savings, Pensions & Investment analysis so the main page can stay focused on the pension-to-innovation argument.
Sources: European Commission CMU action plans (30 Sep 2015; mid-term review 8 Jun 2017; 24 Sep 2020) and SIU strategy (COM(2025) 124, 19 Mar 2025) with follow-on packages (30 Sep, 29 Oct, 20 Nov, 4 Dec 2025; 18 Mar 2026); Eurogroup statement on the future of the CMU (11 Mar 2024); ELTIF 2.0 (Regulation (EU) 2023/606, applying 10 Jan 2024); Letta, “Much More Than a Market” (Apr 2024); Draghi, “The Future of European Competitiveness” (Sep 2024); ECB Financial Integration and Structure report (Jun 2026); Eurostat nasa_10_f_bs; CEPS/Lannoo commentary (Dec 2025); Euronews/Calviño (Feb 2026); ESMA ELTIF register and Morningstar (2026); DNB and European Pensions on the Wtp transition.
Who actually funds European tech?
The Dealroom platform tracks the LPs, funds and rounds behind these numbers — including which pension funds are finally moving.