Europejska Unia Rynkow Kapitalowych a zroznicowanie systemow finansowych panstw czlonkowskich[Capital Markets Union and differentiation of financial systems in member states]

Motivation: The European Capital Market Union (CMU) is a comprehensive initiative with an aim to support the competitiveness of the European Union (EU) economy. Its main tasks are to improve the access for European enterprises to long-term financing, especially in case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-up companies as well as broadening the variety of financing sources thanks to the development of equity and corporate bonds markets. Aim: The main aim of the article is to present the CMU in the light of the literature related to structural changes in financial systems and in the context of current shape of the European financial sector. As a result, the assessment of CMU and main potential obstacles, the EU lawmakers may encounter are presented. Results: The scope of the reform is a major challenge in terms of regulatory (different degree of harmonization of different law branches in the EU) and political issues (related to deepening of the integration among EU countries) and due to financial systems’ diversity in the EU countries. However, according to economic researches on institutional complementarity, among others B. Amable (2003), the scope of effective regulation must be broad and embrace both demand and supply side of the market. Deriving conclusions from Anglo-Saxon countries’ experiences with market-based economy seems to be reasonable in this case, especially taking into consideration still non-saturated market for this type of financing in the EU.