Financial Services Ireland says it is developing a platform to make it easier for Irish consumers to make investments.
The Ibec sub-group is working on the blueprint of a "simplified, tax-efficient investment vehicle" that would give consumers access to a range of savings and investment products from different companies.
In its five year strategy, published today, it called for fast action to address the current blocks on consumer investing. It comes as the European Union has moved to create a Savings and Investment Union.
"What we're trying to do is to move the huge amount of money on deposit... out of low interest deposit accounts and into being more productively used," said Patricia Callan, director at Financial Services Ireland. "In Ireland, that's €169 billion and across the EU, it's €23 trillion.
"So the way to do this is through savings and investment accounts," she added.
Ms Callan said nine EU member states already had these kinds of accounts, with Sweden's model often cited as the best in class.
However the attractiveness of these accounts often hinges on the tax treatment applied to such investments, with the Irish system coming in for criticism recently.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's This Week programme yesterday, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said the Government was working on a strategy to help people get a greater return on savings and investments.
Ms Callan said having a tax incentive was important for making these attractive to consumers, however she said unlocking these funds was also of benefit to the Government, the wider economy and the EU as a whole.
"If we release this money into the economy, that means that governments have more money to invest in things like digitalisation, sustainability, defence, but also into private companies," she said. "Because obviously in the EU we know we have a shortage of capital markets in general, to back entrepreneurs, and this would also help with that."
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While the disadvantageous tax system currently in place in Ireland has impacted Irish consumers, it has not affected the Irish financial service industry's ability to attract global investment.
According to the FSI, almost three quarters of the funds in the European ETF market are domiciled in Ireland.
However Ms Callan said there was a reputational risk to Ireland being behind other countries in terms of how the likes of ETFs are handled, and she said there was currently a situation where an Irish-domiciled fund might sell a product in another European country that it does not sell here.
Europe's push to unlock consumers' cash in order to bolster the region's capital markets is seen as particularly important in the context of the bloc's attempt to reduce its reliance on the US market.
Many US finance firms have European bases in Ireland, while some are members of the FSI.
Ms Callan said that she expected Ireland to continue to be an attractive base to US firms.
"We certainly see ourselves as a bridge here between the EU, the US, and indeed the UK, which is also still a major financial centre," she said.
"That's why... in our strategy, we're very focused on continuing to win and win big in the context of the next wave of jobs, because we have to keep moving up the supply chain given that such global competition," she said.
"Everyone wants these jobs," she added.
