The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalise and strengthen cooperation on sustainable finance. The MoU sets out terms for collaboration on integrating environmental factors into the EU sustainable finance framework and its supervision.

The Board of Supervisors (BoS) of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the BoS of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) have delegated to their respective chairs the power to adopt Q&As on the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which entered into force in January 2023 and has been applicable since January 2025.The regulators say the standard adoption procedure of such answers creates an administrative burden for staff and members of the BoSs. Given the substantial number of non-controversial answers adopted with reference to admissible questions and the likelihood of a growing number of such type of questions in the future in the area of DORA, they say it is desirable that the power to adopt non-controversial answers to admissible questions is delegated to chairs.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) have jointly written to EU officials regarding the Retail Investment Strategy (RIS) proposal. They suggest integrating ideas from ongoing Capital Markets Union discussions into the RIS to avoid multiple revisions of the retail investment framework. ESMA and EIOPA say they support the European Parliament's proposed online comparison tool for PRIIPs but are concerned over amendments to the Value for Money framework introduced by the EU co-legislators. They caution against the creation of national benchmarks and a dual system with firms' peer grouping, arguing these could undermine the effectiveness of the original proposal. Instead, they advocate for EU benchmarks to ensure consistent pricing across the EU for comparable products, aligning with single market principles.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a common supervisory action (CSA) with national competent authorities (NCAs) to assess the implementation of pre-trade controls (PTCs) by EU investment firms using algorithmic trading techniques. The CSA will be carried out in the course of 2024.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced that the new regime for reporting over the counter (OTC) transactions for post-trade transparency will become fully operational on 3 February 2025. Additionally, ESMA has said that it will discontinue the quarterly publication of systematic internalisers (SI) data immediately.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced its support for the European Commission's objective to simplify and reduce the reporting burden in the financial sector. ESMA has outlined several initiatives aimed at streamlining regulatory reporting requirements and reducing the compliance burden on financial firms. Key measures include changes to the MiFIR transparency framework to eliminate duplicative reporting, plans to discontinue certain reporting flows in favour of utilising existing transaction data, and proposals to digitalise sustainability disclosures in a phased manner. ESMA is also consulting on ways to ease the burden of electronic disclosures for financial statement notes.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced its plans for the upcoming publication of the standard market size (SMS) for equity and equity-like financial instruments. This is intended to help market participants prepare for the systematic internaliser (SI) quoting obligations under the revised Regulatory Technical Standard (RTS) 1, introduced as part of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) review. ESMA plans to publish the SMS for equity and equity-like financial instruments the day before the revised RTS 1 becomes applicable. Some provisions of the revised RTS 1 will be applicable 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the EU, including the minimum quoting size for SIs and the threshold up to which transparency obligations apply to SIs.  The remaining RTS 1 provisions will take effect on 2 March 2026.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued advice to the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) and the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) on investment restrictions for GBP liability-driven investment (LDI) funds to ensure their resilience. The advice follows the notification from the CBI and the CCSF of their intention to impose an investment restriction on alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) established in Ireland and Luxembourg and managing GBP-denominated alternative investment funds (AIFs) pursuing a LDI funding strategy.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its annual risk assessment of leveraged alternative investment funds (AIFs) and its first analysis on risks in UCITS using the absolute Value-at-Risk (VaR) approach. ESMA’s analysis identifies that while most EU funds utilise limited leverage, a subset of AIFs—particularly hedge funds—exhibit significantly high levels of leverage. Additionally, around 8% of UCITS funds using the absolute VaR approach display complex derivative exposures and high gross leverage, with a small portion showing risk profiles comparable to those of hedge funds. The assessment also highlights those regulatory measures, such as limits imposed on the interest rate risk of GBP liability-driven investment funds, have enhanced their resilience. ESMA underscores the importance of close supervisory attention in this dynamic and diverse market to ensure that these risks are properly understood and managed.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued a statement regarding the treatment of settlement fails under the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) penalty mechanism, following a major incident affecting TARGET Services (T2S and T2) in February 2025. ESMA clarified that national competent authorities (NCAs) do not expect central securities depositories (CSDs) to apply cash penalties for settlement fails on 27 and 28 February 2025, due to the infrastructure failure that prevented the processing of settlement instructions, payments, ancillary system instructions, or liquidity transfers. According to an existing CSDR Q&A, cash penalties should not be applied when settlement failures are due to reasons beyond the control of the involved participants.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has concluded a common supervisory action (CSA) in collaboration with national competent authorities (NCAs), aimed at evaluating the implementation of pre-trade controls under the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Directive 2014/65/EU) (MiFID II). The findings reveal that while most investment firms have incorporated pre-trade controls into their trading activities and risk management frameworks, significant divergence in implementation and governance practices persists. ESMA plans to further analyse the collected data and publish guidance to promote standardisation among EU firms in the implementation and governance of pre-trade controls.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is consulting on draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) and draft implementing technical standards (ITS) related to the registration and supervision of external reviewers under Regulation (EU) 2023/2631, the EU Green Bond Regulation (EuGB). Responses are sought by 14 June 2024. ESMA will consider the feedback and submit the draft technical standards to the European Commission by 21 December 2024. This is the first of two consultation papers on the appropriate implementation of the EuGB.