Maria Luís Albuquerque, commissioner for financial services and the savings and investments union and entrant to FN’s 100 Most Influential Women in European Finance list this year, said that while there was “no conflict” between accessing listed and unlisted vehicles, continuing to build strong public markets remained vital.

“Public markets are very important even for transparency reasons to understand price formation, for guidance, especially to build trust as well,” Albuquerque told FN. “That’s a big element of the participation of retail investors, so we are determined to do what we can to increase the dynamism of our public markets.”

The Portuguese politician took over the role at the European Commission from Mairead McGuinness last year. She has been a non-executive director at Morgan Stanley’s European bank and a member of fund manager Horizon Equity Partners’ operating team since leaving her finance minister role in 2015.

Her comments come as private assets are increasingly being added to retail investor portfolios. Insurance companies, endowments and sovereign wealth funds have funnelled billions of institutional investor money towards alternatives managers in recent years, justifying higher fees with the potential for higher returns.

But trillions in individual savings and retirement accounts remain in public market investments. A recent partnership between Goldman Sachs and T. Rowe Price is just one example where firms are looking to sell private market products to more retail customers.

In the UK, the landmark Mansion House Compact in 2023 saw a number of pension firms commit to putting 5% of customer assets into private markets, while US president Donald Trump also signed an executive order to open up 401(k) retirement plans to unlisted assets. Meanwhile, the European Long-Term Investment Fund framework has opened up access in the EU.

“Private markets also offer opportunities, so we do have instruments already which could step into the private markets,” Albuquerque said.

“We have pension funds, for instance, who still are the most efficient way of directing retail savings into capital markets. They can also go into that space, so I don’t see a conflict. But I still believe that having dynamic public markets, liquid, deep markets, is important for transparency, trust building, having a reference, particularly for retail investors who feel more comforted to be able to follow what is happening with their investments.”

Officials in the bloc are also looking to finally push through greater integration of capital markets across Europe’s myriad exchanges. The concept, previously known as the capital markets union, was rebranded to a broader savings and investments union last year, and Albuquerque said progress remains a priority despite stalling for a decade.

“It doesn’t take the project to be completed for the tangible benefits to start being felt,” she said. “So I would say it is a longer term project, but we can make very, very significant progress and we could see a different landscape by the end of this mandate.”

Write to Justin Cash at justin.cash@dowjones.com