All roads lead to the Stock Exchange

Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European project, wrote in his memoirs that Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted to confront those crises. Since then, there have been many moments in which that prediction has been put to the test, and it resonates with particular force today. Moments of crisis, or at least turbulence, have abounded in Europe in recent decades, and throughout them all, the presence of capital markets has been a constant feature as part of the solution.

This was the case during the financial crisis, when the stock market provided financing to companies and liquidity windows to investors at all times, and of course also during the COVID-19 pandemic, when capital markets remained open and operational from the very beginning. During that pandemic, the markets contributed to financing part of the reconstruction effort, with public-private partnership plans, and also significantly helped to get business projects and the economy as a whole back on its feet.

Today, Europe, and with it Spain, faces a new decisive period, a new opportunity to forge a common project based on the free market. Experts speak of a moment of historic acceleration, and once again, all eyes are turning to the stock market . There is a consensus that the participation of capital markets will be essential to meet the multi-trillion-dollar financing needed for the essential energy and digital transition. Europe needs to mobilize investment through the capital markets, and it needs it now.

This is a crucial moment, and never before has there been so much debate within the EU. The BME White Paper on boosting the competitiveness of capital markets in Spain was soon followed by the Letta Report , the Draghi Report , and the OECD report on the revitalization of capital markets. All of these works share a common diagnosis and many of their proposals. European action was already necessary a few months ago, before the tariff swings and the recent debate on the importance of financing the European rearmament plan, but it has become even more imperative in light of all this.

The Savings and Investment Union (SIU) strategy, which seeks to improve the way the EU financial system channels savings into productive investments, is fundamental to this objective, by pursuing broader access to capital markets and better financing options for businesses.

All roads lead to the stock market. For companies, the ability to obtain financing through the capital markets is crucial. In the first quarter of this year alone, the markets managed by BME provided €2.459 billion in financing to companies, including IPOs and capital increases, more than double the same amount for the same period last year. The more diversified their sources of financing, the stronger their companies will be, and with them, the economy as a whole, as they will be able to finance their projects and create jobs.

Therefore, it is key to encourage more companies to enter the capital markets. So far this year, five companies have joined BME's growth markets and another has joined the Stock Exchange, and by 2025 there will be 26 debuts.

These are positive figures, but they should serve as an impetus to attract more companies. At BME, we work in several areas. On the one hand, working hand in hand with the CNMV and always in contact with the sector, we are finalizing a new segment that will allow companies to file an IPO prospectus and have a longer period than now to carry out the final listing at the most convenient time. This will be an innovation in the IPO process, which has remained unchanged for decades.

Furthermore, companies in growing sectors with a more digital and innovative profile should count on the Stock Exchange as an ally for their growth. All sources of financing are complementary, but the Stock Exchange offers unique advantages such as visibility, reputation, and access to recurring financing, which, depending on the stage of these companies' lives, should be valued. For this reason, we recently added 11 new companies to the Pre-Market Environment, our training program to prepare companies for the leap into the capital markets. Along these lines, we also believe that our alliance with EsTech will help boost investment and financing for the main technology scale-ups in Spain.

It's important to attract new companies, but also to ensure that those already listed find the capital markets the most efficient, secure, advanced, internationalized, and robust system possible. Along these lines, we are working on continuous improvements to consolidate the increase in trading volumes seen in the first half of the year and to gain market share.

In this national objective, retail investors cannot be left out, as they must make the leap from savers to investors. It is estimated that in the massive privatization process of Spanish public companies that went public in the late 1990s and early 2000s, retail investors held 38% of the new shares issued in those transactions.

It is necessary to facilitate the return of retail investors to the stock market, for example, with a European investment model that follows the path of the Swedish ISK account, a successful model that has boosted capital markets in that country, where retail investors allocate only 14% of their savings to bank deposits, compared to 40% in Spain. The Spanish government is already working on a similar formula.

The challenge ahead is not simple, but no goal worth pursuing is. Together, embracing the drive of capital markets as a key element of European growth and the green and digital transition, with retailers returning and more listed companies, we can write a new chapter in the history of the European project.