Private Markets Could Support Europe’s Financing Push, ECB Says

City workers in the La Defense business district of Paris.

Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

The European Central Bank said burgeoning private markets could support a push by politicians in the region to channel savings into investments needed to modernize the economy.

While private markets “remain small” in the euro area despite growth in recent years, they can match the financing needs of riskier companies with long-term investors who can bear that risk, the ECB said in a report on Thursday.