The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published translations in all EU official languages of its guidelines Outsourcing to Cloud Service Providers. Accordingly the guidelines will now come into effect from 30 September 2025.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an opinion on the Sustainable Finance Regulatory Framework, setting out possible long-term improvements. ESMA acknowledges that the framework is already well developed and includes safeguards against greenwashing, but says in the longer-term, it could further evolve to facilitate investors’ access to sustainable investments and support the effective functioning of the sustainable investment value chain.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a letter to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council providing an interim update on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Pilot Regime. The letter provides an update on the status of applications received by national competent authorities (NCAs) to date, as well as a list of challenges and opportunities identified in the first year of application.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a table showing the status of ESMA’s consultations planned for 2025. The table will be updated by ESMA on a regular basis.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its peer review report on the supervision of simple, transparent, and standardised (STS) securitisations by national competent authorities (NCAs). The report provides recommendations to enhance supervisory approaches adopted by selected NCAs in supervising STS securitisation transactions and the activities of their originators, sponsors, and securitisation special purpose entities (SSPEs). ESMA intends to continue to facilitate and coordinate convergence work at the EU level and plans to carry out a follow-up assessment to evaluate progress against the recommendations.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a report on the EU alternative investment fund (AIFs) market and an article on the risks posed by leveraged AIFs in the EU. In particular, ESMA highlights the risks posed by real estate (RE) funds, in a context of declining volumes of transactions and falling prices in several jurisdictions.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final report on the 2023–2024 Common Supervisory Action (CSA), conducted in cooperation with national competent authorities (NCAs), on the integration of sustainability risks and disclosures in the investment management sector. The CSA assessed compliance with the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (EU SFDR), the Taxonomy Regulation (EU) 2020/852, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (Directive 2011/61/EU) (AIFMD), and the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (Directive 2009/65/EC) (UCITS). The report states that the overall level of compliance was satisfactory but identifies areas for improvement in the integration of sustainability risks and in entity- and product-level disclosures under the EU SFDR. The CSA also contributed to ESMA’s work on greenwashing. The report notes that NCAs took supervisory actions to address identified issues and will continue engaging with market participants and following up on vulnerabilities.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a report examining Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) and its implications for decentralised finance (DeFi) and broader crypto markets. MEV refers to the value that blockchain participants, such as validators or block proposers, can extract by reordering, inserting or excluding transactions within a block. The report notes that MEV is prevalent on Ethereum and appears to be increasing on other blockchains, although data remain limited. While some MEV practices, such as arbitrage and liquidations, may contribute to market efficiency, others—particularly front-running and sandwich attacks—raise concerns around transparency, fairness and user outcomes. The report also highlights that MEV can increase transaction costs and reduce trust in DeFi protocols.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a report on its corporate reporting enforcement and regulatory activities in 2023. The report provides an overview of the activities of ESMA and national enforcers in the European Economic Area when examining compliance of financial and non-financial information provided by issuers. It also presents the main activities contributing to supervisory convergence performed at European level.

Together with the national competent authorities (NCAs), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a report on the 2023 common supervisory action (CSA) and the accompanying Mystery Shopping Exercise (MSE) on marketing disclosure rules under MiFID II.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a report on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) pilot regime. Developed with input from national competent authorities (NCAs) and the European Central Bank (ECB), the report reviews the current state of DLT market infrastructures in the EU and proposes expanding participation by adjusting regulatory thresholds and introducing greater flexibility based on business model risk.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a final report on the draft implementing technical standards (ITS) on the extension of the use of the alleviated format of insider lists. Annex III contains the draft ITS.