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The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), in collaboration with eleven European and international organisations, has published the ninth edition of the Capital Markets Union: Key Performance Indicators report.
The 2026 report assesses the EU’s progress towards deeper, more integrated and competitive capital markets and compares the performance of EU capital markets with other major global markets. It also examines developments across individual EU Member States.
The report measures progress through nine key performance indicators covering four areas: access to capital, availability of investment pools, sustainable and digital finance, and capital market efficiency and integration.
What does the 2026 Capital Markets Union KPI report show?
The 2026 indicators show broadly positive momentum across EU capital markets. European companies are making greater use of market-based finance, risk capital for SMEs has increased, sustainable finance remains a relative European strength, and integration between EU capital markets has deepened.
Capital markets are also playing an increasingly important role in financing Europe’s strategic priorities, including defence, artificial intelligence, technology and decarbonisation.
However, a significant global competitiveness gap remains. European businesses continue to have access to smaller pools of capital than many global competitors, while a substantial proportion of European household savings remains outside capital market investments.
EU companies are making greater use of capital markets
Market-based finance continued to grow in 2026, with 13.7% of EU non-financial corporate funding coming from capital markets, up from 12.2% in 2025.
Growth was driven by bond issuance, while equity issuance also increased and EU IPO activity reached its highest level since 2022. However, EU exchanges accounted for only 3.6% of global IPOs, highlighting the continued difference in scale between EU capital markets and other major global markets.
Risk capital is helping finance defence, AI, technology and decarbonisation
Risk capital rose to 5.1% of SME funding in the EU, up from 3% in 2025. While bank loans remain by far the largest source of SME finance, the increase in pre-IPO equity-based funding represents an encouraging development.
Major investments have been directed towards European scale-ups operating in strategically important sectors, including technology, defence, artificial intelligence and decarbonisation.
EU capital markets are becoming more integrated
Intra-EU capital market integration deepened further in 2026, supported by stronger cross-border M&A, private equity investment, portfolio holdings and equity issuance.
Greater integration can help capital flow more effectively across Member States and support the development of a deeper and more competitive EU capital market.
The EU remains a global leader in sustainable finance
ESG-labelled bonds represented 12.3% of EU bond issuance, reinforcing the EU’s position as the leading market for sustainable finance among the major global jurisdictions covered by the report.
Europe continues to face a global capital markets competitiveness gap
Despite recent progress, EU capital markets remain significantly smaller in scale than their US counterparts.
US companies raised more than €1 trillion in public equity and debt funding in the first half of 2026, compared with €290 billion in the EU.
Closing this gap will require Europe to develop deeper pools of capital and increase the amount of funding available for businesses, innovation and strategic investment.
Europe needs to mobilise more household savings for investment
EU adults held an average of approximately €48,000 in market-based savings, a level that has remained broadly unchanged in real terms over the past decade and remains below the levels recorded in the US, Australia and the UK.
Mobilising more household savings into capital market investments could help Europe build deeper pools of investment capital to support businesses and long-term economic growth.
Securitisation could help unlock additional financing in Europe
The EU Loan Transfer Indicator declined in 2026, underlining the opportunity to strengthen Europe’s securitisation market.
A stronger securitisation market could help support lending and allow capital to be deployed more efficiently towards growth and strategic investment.
What needs to happen next?
The 2026 Capital Markets Union Key Performance Indicators show encouraging momentum, but the EU continues to have significant ground to make up against leading global capital markets.
AFME argues that progress under the Savings and Investments Union should focus on mobilising more household savings, strengthening securitisation and further deepening and integrating EU capital markets. These reforms will be important to mobilising the investment needed to support European growth, innovation and global competitiveness.
Read the Capital Markets Union: Key Performance Indicators 2026 report.