European Securities and Markets Authority

ESMA assesses market developments in DeFi and explores the smart contracts system

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
European Securities and Markets Authority, Incidence, Q&A, USD, OECD, Person, Adoption, ESMA, Time, Cryptocurrency, Risk management, Medical device, EU, Decentralized finance

ESMA assesses market developments in DeFi and explores the smart contracts system

Key Points: 
  • ESMA assesses market developments in DeFi and explores the smart contracts system
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets and securities regulator, today publishes two articles on decentralised finance (DeFi), one on developments and risks in the EU market and another on a methodology for the categorisation of smart contracts.
  • These articles highlight important risks to consumers, new forms of market abuse, and possible vulnerabilities to financial stability.
  • DeFi: developments and risks in the EU market
    The article on DeFi developments and risks in the EU shows that DeFi raises serious risks to investor protection, because of the highly speculative nature of many DeFi arrangements and important operational and security vulnerabilities.
  • DeFi: categorisation of smart contracts
    The article introduces a methodology for the categorisation of smart contracts which leverages on the latter’s source code and on topic modelling.

ESMA puts forward expectations towards effective circuit breaker implementation

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
European Securities and Markets Authority, Calibration, Television, Civil service commission, European Commission, Letter, ESMA, Compliance, Property management, EU

ESMA puts forward expectations towards effective circuit breaker implementation

Key Points: 
  • ESMA puts forward expectations towards effective circuit breaker implementation
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, is today publishing a supervisory briefing on circuit breakers, which provides a comprehensive overview of supervisory expectations regarding the calibration of circuit breakers implemented by trading venues (TVs).
  • The supervisory briefing outlines several principles that national competent authorities (NCAs) should enforce to ensure effective circuit breaker implementation and aims to strengthen convergence among NCAs on circuit breaker calibration methodology, promoting compliance, common understanding and enforcement practices.
  • The guidance comes in the context of the letter ESMA sent to the European Commission about measures to be implemented in energy markets.
  • It is expected that the calibration of circuit breakers throughout the EU will improve and therefore volatility will be better managed.

ESMA consults on possible changes to annual fees for Tier 1 Third country central counterparties

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Introduction, European Securities and Markets Authority, EUR, TC, European Parliament, European Commission, OJ, Council, Introduction of the Bundesliga, European Market Infrastructure Regulation, European, Delegate, EMIR, Tier 1, Civil service commission, Market, ESMA, Property management, Fine chemical, EU

ESMA consults on possible changes to annual fees for Tier 1 Third country central counterparties

Key Points: 
  • ESMA consults on possible changes to annual fees for Tier 1 Third country central counterparties
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, today launches a public consultation on the revision of the Delegated Regulation regarding fees charged to Tier 1 third country central counterparties (CCPs) under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
  • - Introduction of a basic minimum annual fee of EUR 50,000 per Tier 1 TC-CCP, and a maximum annual fee of EUR 250,000.
  • ESMA’s proposals aim to ensure that the annual fees charged to Tier 1 third country central counterparties (TC-CCPs) are more proportionate and accurately reflect the differences in size and activity across all Tier 1 TC-CCPs.
  • The feedback received will feed into ESMA’s Technical Advice to the European Commission on changes to the Delegated Regulation on fees charged to third country CCPs[1].

ESMA extends temporary CCP collateral emergency measures by six months

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
European Securities and Markets Authority, Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel, European, Civil service commission, European Parliament, NFC East, European Commission, EU, Electricity, Council, ESMA, Dive (Belgian band), CCP, Security (finance)

ESMA extends temporary CCP collateral emergency measures by six months

Key Points: 
  • ESMA extends temporary CCP collateral emergency measures by six months
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has extended for a limited period of six months the emergency measures which temporarily expand the pool of eligible collateral for all types of counterparties.
  • Uncollateralised bank guarantees for non-financial counterparties (NFCs) acting as clearing members and public guarantees for all types of counterparties will continue to be temporarily eligible by central counterparties (CCPs) in order to avoid potential disruption during the upcoming cold season.
  • The temporary measures set out in ESMA’s Final Report were adopted during the height of the energy crisis to alleviate the liquidity pressure on NFCs active on gas and electricity regulated markets that clear in EU-based CCPs.
  • Next steps
    The Final Report has been sent to the European Commission for endorsement and will be subject to a scrutiny procedure by the European Parliament and the Council.

ESMA to launch Common Supervisory Action on MiFID II sustainability requirements

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
European Securities and Markets Authority, Single Supervisory Mechanism, National, Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014, CSA, Property management, Audit, Plumbing, Marketing, ESMA, EU

ESMA to launch Common Supervisory Action on MiFID II sustainability requirements

Key Points: 
  • ESMA to launch Common Supervisory Action on MiFID II sustainability requirements
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, will launch a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) with National Competent Authorities (NCAs) on the integration of sustainability in firms’ suitability assessment and product governance processes and procedures in 2024.
  • The goal of the CSA will be to assess the progress made by intermediaries in the application of the key sustainability requirements, which entered into application in 2022 following the amendments to the MiFID II Delegated Acts.
  • ESMA believes this initiative, and the related sharing of practices across NCAs, will help ensure consistent application of EU rules and enhance the protection of investors in line with ESMA’s objectives.
  • The CSA follows ESMA’s recent update of two sets of guidelines on suitability and product governance, both of which enter into application today.

ESMA finds increase in use of ESG-related language in the EU fund industry

Retrieved on: 
Monday, October 2, 2023
Sustainable finance, Communication, Industry, Q&A, Marketing, Disclosure, European Securities and Markets Authority, Language, Person, Name, Documentation, SFDR, ESG, ESMA, Risk management, Security (finance), EU

ESMA finds increase in use of ESG-related language in the EU fund industry

Key Points: 
  • ESMA finds increase in use of ESG-related language in the EU fund industry
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets and securities regulator, today publishes an article exploring the use of language related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in EU investment fund names and documentation.
  • The article further highlights that fund managers tend to prefer using generic language (‘ESG’, ‘Sustainable’) rather than more specific words.
  • This can make it more difficult for investors to verify that the fund portfolio is in line with the name.
  • To carry out this study ESMA has also used natural language processing techniques to examine the use of ESG-related language in more than 100,000 fund documents.

The EBA responds to the European Commission’s Call for Advice on significance criteria and supervisory fees under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation

Retrieved on: 
Friday, September 29, 2023
Crypto, Call, European Central Bank, European Banking Authority, Financial Services and Markets Authority (Belgium), The, European Parliament, Civil service commission, EIOPA, Classification, European, DORA, European Securities and Markets Authority, Article, ESRB, EBA, Central bank, Finance, Market, European Systemic Risk Board, FSB, ECB, Council, Emergency medical technician, Financial Stability Board, ESMA, EC, European Commission, Cryptocurrency, EU

The EBA proposes a set of core and ancillary indicators for each significance criterion within the scope of the Call for Advice: financial sector interconnectedness, and activities on an international scale.

Key Points: 
  • The EBA proposes a set of core and ancillary indicators for each significance criterion within the scope of the Call for Advice: financial sector interconnectedness, and activities on an international scale.
  • all types of transactions, or transactions where the token is used as means of exchange) and take account of data availabilities.
  • Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCAR) establishes a regime for the regulation and supervision of crypto-asset issuance and crypto-asset service provision in the European Union (EU).
  • Supervision tasks are conferred on the EBA for ARTs and EMTs that are determined by the EBA to be significant.

ESMA Work Programme 2024: focus on digital change and the green transition

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Investment fund, Communication, National, Directive, Commission, DORA, European Securities and Markets Authority, ESAP, European Market Infrastructure Regulation, Information, Parliament, Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive 2011, CSDR, Mica, Civil List Act 1979, Information and communications technology, European, UCITS, Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive 2009, ESMA, EMIR, Property management, Cryptocurrency, Management, EU

ESMA Work Programme 2024: focus on digital change and the green transition

Key Points: 
  • ESMA Work Programme 2024: focus on digital change and the green transition
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial market regulator and supervisor, today publishes its work programme for 2024.
  • By fostering effective regulation and supervision of the European capital markets, ESMA contributes to addressing the challenges faced by the EU and its citizens.
  • Verena Ross, Chair of ESMA, said:
    “The implementation of a number of significant legislative projects will shape ESMA’s work and responsibilities in 2024.
  • In the digital finance area ESMA will conclude the work on technical standards and guidelines in relation to the MiCA regulation and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).

ESMA provides overview of EU securitisation markets

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Transparency, FR, STS, European Securities and Markets Authority, SECR, EUR, ABS, ABCP, ESMA, SME, Cryptocurrency, EU

ESMA provides overview of EU securitisation markets

Key Points: 
  • ESMA provides overview of EU securitisation markets
    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, today publishes a study setting out the details of the EU securitisation market.
  • At end-2022, there were 390 individual securitised products outstanding in the EU as reported to the registered securitisation repositories, amounting to EUR 540bn.
  • These securitisations fulfil a various set of predetermined requirements to help investors identify high-quality securitisations and thus foster EU securitisation markets.
  • This article is based on the data ESMA receives under Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 (Securitisation Regulation, or SECR), and on data from the ESMA register of Simple, Transparent and Standardised securitisation (STS) securitisations.

EQS-News: fund2seed GmbH: fund2seed group is complemented by an EU-Benchmark-Administrator

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Reference, Heart, Growth, European Securities and Markets Authority, Philosophy, ESMA, EU, Tourism

Under the "fund2index" brand, the fund2seed Group will be launching a series of indices in the coming months that reduce complexity in order to enable effective action and provide guidance.

Key Points: 
  • Under the "fund2index" brand, the fund2seed Group will be launching a series of indices in the coming months that reduce complexity in order to enable effective action and provide guidance.
  • With the help of multidimensional indices, indices on bonds, alpha and risk-adjusted indices, the philosophy of the fund2seed group is consistently implemented.
  • Sven Ulbrich, founder of the fund2seed Group: "Acting meaningful requires continuously reflecting on the intention and impact of one's actions.
  • We are building on a solid foundation of years of experience, including a strong governance structure, and look forward to contributing to the growth of the Group."