The urgently needed consolidation of the European capital markets requires a change in mentality among the population. This was the conclusion reached by a prominent panel at Börsen-Zeitung's Finanzplatztag earlier this week. Deutsche Börse CEO Stephan Leithner had little positive to report about the investment behaviour of Europeans in general – and Germans in particular.

„The money is there,“ Leithner stated. „In Europe, 11 trillion euros are lying around unproductively in bank accounts,“ he lamented, citing figures from the Letta Report. And Germany has a huge gap as the problem of funded pension provision has still not been addressed.

It is true that the outgoing German government has already done the preparatory work to relieve the burden on the deficit-ridden pay-as-you-go system with its proposal for a share-based pension. However, Anja Mikus, head of Kenfo, a state fund set up to finance nuclear waste disposal, doubts that anything will happen on the subject in the foreseeable future. „I've been working for the state for too long to hope for that,“ she said.

The consequences for Kenfo's investment policy would not be positive. „I often hear that we should invest more in Germany,“ said Mikus. However, there is a lack of opportunities for this, especially on the equities side. US companies have a 71% weighting in the broad MSCI index, while German companies have just 2%.

Stefan Wintels, CEO of KfW, also observes a lack of investment opportunities in the German economy, though he added that "there is no doubt that there is international interest.“ Wintels hopes that the next German coalition government will build on the Future Fund and WIN initiative to improve the financing conditions for domestic start-ups, and that retail investors will participate in their future growth, which would ultimately also serve to further develop the capital market.

According to Commerzbank CEO Bettina Orlopp, politicians had a receptive ear for the financial sector during the election campaign. The next governing coalition must act quickly: „We urgently need a positive sentiment for Germany.," she said.

The election result, which allows the formation of a coalition government consisting of two parties, is an important milestone for Germany's competitiveness, said Souâd Benkredda, Head of Capital Markets at DZ Bank. This has also been recognised internationally, she added, giving her impressions from a trip to Asia. There is no single solution to untie the knot. Many different points need to be addressed. For example, better financial education is needed to mobilise private capital for old-age provision.

UBS Germany boss Tobias Vogel agreed with this point. „Germans are far too fixated on capital guarantees, which are simply far too expensive,“ he stated. That's why we need to create an awareness among the population that doing without them will enable higher returns in the long term.