Spanish households have 36% less of their savings invested in financial markets than the rest of Europe

These figures come from the ninth 'Capital Markets Union: Key Performance Indicators', the Afme published on Monday. The report includes listed shares, bonds, units in investment funds, life insurance reserves and pension fund assets.

It also shows a clear preference among Spanish savers for cash and deposits, which account for 34% of Spanish households' financial assets: a higher proportion than in Italy (25%) and France (28%), although lower than in Germany (37%).

The gap is particularly striking when compared with northern Europe, where savings invested in the markets of countries such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands exceed 113,000 euros per adult. For Afme, this difference highlights the need to encourage greater participation by households in capital markets, with the aim of "channelling savings towards business financing, innovation and Europe's strategic needs".

For the association, the data is particularly significant "at a time when Spain is in the process of launching the Financia Europa savings and investment account, the main aim of which is to channelling citizens' savings towards investment in European companies".

The report indicates that financing obtained by Spanish non-financial companies through the markets rose by 18% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, driven by bond issuances from highly creditworthy companies. This growth slightly exceeded the European average, which stood at 17%.

However, financing through bonds and shares still has a relatively small weight in Spain: it represents 8.6% of the total considered in the Afme indicator, compared to an average of 13.7% in the EU.

Spanish companies issued 14.3 billion euros in investment-grade bonds in the first half of 2026, 53% more than in the same period of the previous year. Furthermore, sustainable (ESG) bond issuances in Spain grew by 68% year-on-year, reaching 15.9 billion, driven primarily by the strong performance of green bonds, whose issuances increased by 118% to 10.9 billion euros.

This growth positions Spain as the fifth-largest issuer of sustainable bonds in the EU and puts it on track to record its best year ever in this segment.

IPOs (initial public offerings) fell by 71%, raising a mere 200 million euros. Pre-IPO venture capital funding, aimed at boosting innovation in unlisted startups and SMEs, is growing strongly thanks to the surge in venture capital funds (+16%), private investors or business angels (+39%) and crowdfunding (+39%), allowing Spain to climb to 19th place in the EU. However, this type of investment still represents only 1.8% of the Spanish market, placing it well below the EU average (5.1%).

This is why, despite progress, the report ranks Spain 15th in the EU for capital market competitiveness due to a lack of liquidity. The Afme concludes that, despite improvements in corporate access and sustainable finance, the decline in stock market liquidity and low household savings levels prevent the Spanish market from converging with the EU average.

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