Olaf Scholz, German Finance Minister, Wopke Hoekstra, Minister of Finance of the Netherlands and Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy and Finance of France, received the “Savings and Sustainable Investment Union” report by the Next Capital Markets Union High-Level Group on 9 October 2019. They thanked the Next CMU Group for their high-quality work and welcome the ambitious recommendations in a joint press statement that you can find here.

The second Fiscal Policy Seminar took place on 7-8 October 2019 at the Federal Ministry of Finance: 65 science and policy experts from twelve countries attended the seminar, titled “Analysing developments in savings, investments and interest rates – reassessing the role of fiscal policies for growth and stabilisation”. They analysed the developments of savings, investments and interest and discussed conclusions on how to implement fair fiscal policies.

At the meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Helsinki on 13 September 2019, Germany and France issued a joint statement on the digital currency Libra. Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire oppose Facebook’s digital currency. They consider that the Libra project fails to convince that risks will be properly addressed.

The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection have agreed on a package of measures to enhance investor protection. The measures expand the scope of BaFin’s powers for the supervision of financial products and their distribution. Capital investments are now subject to even stricter requirements.

At their meeting in Chantilly (France) on 17 and 18 July, the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors discussed the risks associated with stablecoins. They reiterated the importance of a fair international tax system and, for the first time, agreed on the introduction of a global minimum effective corporate tax as an explicit aim.