EUROPE – European Commissioner Fritz Bolkestein says the Financial Services Action Plan could help boost pension values at retirement by nine percent.

The internal market commissioner told a conference organised by the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London that the creation of an integrated financial market was vital to making Europe “the world's leading marketplace”.

“Without a single, deep and liquid capital market the enormous pool of European savings – 10 trillion euros of private savings invested in pension funds, life-insurance and UCITS – will not work to the full advantage of European savers and corporate borrowers,” he said.

“We have a unique opportunity to increase the returns for savers, while reducing the cost of capital to business.”

He added: “Recent estimates suggest that a modest 0.4% improvement in investment returns – well within consensus estimates of the benefits from greater integration of Europe's fund industry – could increase the size of pension values at retirement by nine percent.”

He said the Commission’s Financial Services Action Plan would help to deliver these benefits. The plan would remove regulatory and public policy barriers “which prevent financial market participants from exercising commercial freedoms on a pan-European basis”.

He added that there was “no new tsunami wave” of regulation being hatched in Brussels.

Our objective remains an efficient and integrated financial market for Europe. To achieve this objective we need to stay on course and complete the measures planned under the Financial Services Action Plan.”

Such sentiments have been echoed by the head of the International Monetary Fund. Horst Koehler said in a speech today that the FSAP was "a valuable opportunity to improve the depth and efficiency of Europe's capital markets".