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Date Ref. Title Section Type Download Info Summary Related Documents Translated versions
07/07/2011 2011/195 Press release- ESMA investigates how Member States have implemented the Transparency Directive Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
61.34 KB
18/01/2011 2011/27 Press release- ESMA finds diversity across Europe in regulators’ contingency measures for financial crisis situations Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
31.5 KB
08/11/2011 2011/371 Press release- Regulators elect Martin Wheatley to ESMA's Management Board Management Board, Press Releases Press Release PDF
131.43 KB
15/02/2012 2012/100 Regulators re-elect Jean Guill, Kurt Pribil and Fernando Restoy to ESMA’s Management Board Management Board, Press Releases Press Release PDF
111.25 KB
26/04/2012 2012/272 ESMA identifies divergence in Member States’ use of sanctions under the Market Abuse Directive Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
179.91 KB		 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a report on the use of administrative and criminal sanctions by European Union (EU) national regulators under the Market Abuse Directive (MAD).  The report provides a comparison of the use of administrative sanctioning powers across 29 EEA Member States for 2008-2010.  The results of the report will provide input to the legislative process on the new market abuse regime.
24/05/2012 2012/330 ESMA finds high level of consistency in EU national regulators’ practices for the approval of investment prospectuses Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
177.71 KB		 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published today “Prospectus Directive – Good Practices in the approval process“,  a peer review report on the application of regulatory good practices by national supervisory authorities - competent authorities (CA)  when approving investment prospectuses.The review was conducted using good practice criteria that ESMA developed on selected areas of the Prospectus Directive dealing with the approval process for investment prospectuses.  The prospectuses provide investors with easy to understand and relevant information on investment products.  Peer review reports on national regulators’ procedures contribute to ESMA’s objective of fostering supervisory convergence and achieving a level playing field between jurisdictions.
15/03/2013 2013/311 Gérard Rameix elected to ESMA’s Management Board Management Board, Press Releases Press Release PDF
106.68 KB
01/07/2013 2013/852 ESMA review finds good compliance with EU market abuse rules Market Abuse, Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
132.09 KB		 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a peer review of the supervisory practices EEA national competent authorities (NCAs) apply in enforcing the requirements of the Market Abuse Directive (MAD).  The Directive deals with the prevention of the dissemination of misleading information, the breach of reporting obligations and market abuse.  
04/07/2013 2013/889 ESMA Vice Chair and Management Board Election Results Management Board, Board of Supervisors Press Release PDF
93.43 KB		 ESMA Vice Chair and Management Board Election Results Vice Chair Re-elected The Board of Supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has re-elected Carlos Tavares as its Vice Chair. Mr. Tavares, who is Chairman of the Portuguese Comissão Do Mercado De Valores Mobiliários (CMVM), has completed an initial 2½ year term and will now serve a further term of 2½ years in the position. Management Board Election The terms of three members of ESMA’s Management Board expired and elections were held by the Board of Supervisors to fill the positions for a term of 2½ years. Those elected are: Kostas Botopoulos, Hellenic Capital Markets Commission (HCMC), Greece – new member; Klaus Kumpfmüller, Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA), Austria – new member; and Martin Wheatley, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), United Kingdom –re-elected for a second term. The outgoing members were Karl-Burkhard Caspari from the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) of Germany and Raul Malmstein of Estonia’s, Finantsinspektsioon. The Management Board, chaired by Steven Maijoor, the ESMA Chair, is responsible for ensuring that the Authority carries out its mission and performs the tasks assigned to it under the Regulation. The Management Board now consists of: Steven Maijoor, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA); Kostas Botopoulos, Hellenic Capital Markets Commission (HCMC), Greece; Klaus Kumpfmüller, Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA), Austria; Jean Guill, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), Luxembourg; Gérard Rameix, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), France; Julie Galbo, Finanstilsynet, Denmark and Martin Wheatley, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), United Kingdom. Reference 2013/889
29/09/2014 2014/1191 ESMA Management Board Election Results Corporate Information, Management Board, Board of Supervisors, Press Releases Press Release PDF
90.35 KB		 The European Securities and Markets Authority has elected three new members to its Management Board to replace outgoing members whose term will expire in October this year. The election took place at the Board of Supervisors meeting in Rome on 25 September and the successful candidates, who will serve a term of 2½ years beginning on the 1 November 2014, are: • Cyril Roux, Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), Ireland – new member; • Gérard Rameix, Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), France – ending first term and re-elected; and • Marek Szuszkiewicz, Komisja Nadzoru Finanswego (KNF), Poland – new member.
11/12/2014 2014/1478 ESMA reviews supervisory practices on MiFID investor information Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
136.83 KB		 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has conducted a peer review of how national regulators (national competent authorities or NCAs) supervise MiFID conduct of business rules on providing fair, clear and not misleading information to clients. The peer review focused on NCAs’ organisation, supervisory approaches, monitoring and complaints handling in relation to information and marketing communications under MiFID. The Report found that there was overall a high degree of compliance amongst NCAs with the good practices identified in these key areas. However, a variety of approaches were observed, leading to different intensity of supervision. A number of areas for improvement were identified. They include: enhanced use of on-site inspections and thematic reviews; a specific focus on conduct of business issues in firms’ risk assessments; and greater efforts to detect failings by firms in a timely manner. The review was conducted on the basis of information provided by NCAs in a self-assessment questionnaire and complemented by on-site visits to the NCAs of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, said: “Providing fair, clear and not misleading information to clients is essential for investor protection and should be applied consistently throughout the EU. This review is a major step forward in ensuring that progress is being made towards convergence in this area by national regulators. “The report provides a thorough insight and analysis of national supervisory practices, facilitated by ESMA’s first on-site visits, and includes a number of recommendations which I urge national regulators to consider when reviewing their practices in this area”. Key Findings The review’s key findings covered the following areas: Ex-ante and ex-post supervision – supervisory systems are divided between ex-ante and ex-post reviews of marketing material. Within the ex-post approach there is also divergence in terms of the timeliness with which NCAs review the material following its dissemination and consider complaints made by clients of firms; Direct and indirect supervision – while some NCAs directly supervise firms’ compliance with their obligations relating to the provision of information and marketing material to clients, others rely on annual checks performed by external auditors. The latter approach may make it difficult to detect failings by firms in a timely manner due to the successive sampling process employed by auditors and then the NCA?s concerned; Complaints and Sanctions – a low level of complaints and equally low level of sanctions are reported by NCAs in the area of information and marketing to clients; and Definition of information and marketing communication - There is no precise definition of the term marketing communication in EU law: this would need to be further defined in order to build effective convergence of supervisory practices. Recommendations for future work The Report identifies a number of areas for future work by NCAs and ESMA which could promote a more coherent cross-EU application of the requirements. These include: establishing more robust structures and efficient coordination and cooperation arrangements between different supervisory units within NCAs; defining a clear set of information and marketing material to be supervised; assessing the frequency of NCAs’ monitoring of investor information and marketing; assessing the adequacy of monitoring the distribution channels used by firms including in the cross border provision of services; requiring investment firms to submit to their NCAs details of all information and marketing material to be provided including material used for cross-border business; considering the use of integrated databases to assist in supervision of information and marketing to clients; assessing the frequency and consistency of the use of sanctions by NCAs; and assessing the implementation and effectiveness of the guidelines for complaints-handling for the securities (ESMA) and banking (EBA) sectors. In addition, ESMA should continue its efforts, including the use of Opinions, in promoting the development of a level-playing field regarding the provision of information in an understandable format to clients and the quality of service to clients.
06/11/2015 2015/1627 ESMA appoints new members to its Management Board Management Board, Press Releases Press Release PDF
104.35 KB
25/02/2015 2015/495 ESMA publishes review on best execution supervisory practices under MiFID MiFID - Investor Protection, Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
112.68 KB		 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has conducted a peer review on how national regulators (national competent authorities or NCAs) supervise and enforce the MiFID provisions relating to investment firms’ obligation to provide best execution, or obtain the best possible result, for their clients when executing their orders. ESMA found that the level of implementation of best execution provisions, as well as the level of convergence of supervisory practices by NCAs, is relatively low. In order to address this situation a number of improvements were identified, including: . prioritisation of best execution as a key conduct of business supervisory issue; . the allocation of sufficient resources to best execution supervision; and . a more proactive supervisory approach to monitoring compliance with best execution requirements, both desk-based and onsite inspections. The review was conducted on the basis of information provided by 29 NCAs and complemented by on-site visits to the NCAs of France, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Spain.
10/11/2016 2016-1564 ESMA prepares for new International Financial Reporting Standard 9 Audit, Corporate Disclosure, IFRS Supervisory Convergence, Press Releases Press Release PDF
132.26 KB
30/06/2016 2016/1047 Press Release Prospectus Peer Review Prospectus, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
188.52 KB
11/10/2016 2016/1458 ESMA to focus on supervisory convergence issues in 2017 Board of Supervisors, Management Board, Planning reporting budget, Press Releases Press Release PDF
230.38 KB

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its 2017 Work Programme which sets out its priorities and areas of focus for 2017 in support of its mission to enhance investor protection and promote stable and orderly financial markets.

The programme reflects the shift in focus of ESMA’s work, from building the single rulebook, towards ensuring its consistent application across the European Union (EU), as outlined in its 2016-2020 Strategic Orientation. The key areas of focus under ESMA’s activities of supervisory convergence, assessing risks, single rulebook and direct supervision will be:

  • Converging supervisory practices on the implementation of MiFIDII/MiFIR ;
  • Focusing on data quality;
  • Level 2 work on the Benchmarks Regulation and on various initiatives under the umbrella of the Capital Markets Union; and
  • Directly supervising credit rating agencies (CRA) and trade repositories (TR), with a particular focus on their ancillary activities given the trend of combining ancillary and core services.
28/10/2016 2016/1529 Joint ESMA and EBA Guidelines on the assessment of the suitability of members of the management body and key function holders Guidelines and Technical standards, MiFID - Investor Protection Consultation Paper PDF
1.13 MB
15/12/2016 2016/1656 Press release- ESMA appoints new member to its Management Board Management Board, Press Releases Press Release PDF
143.86 KB
11/02/2016 2016/284 ESMA publishes first supervisory convergence work programme Corporate Information, Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
107.18 KB

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its first Supervisory Convergence Work Programme 2016 (SCWP), which details the activities and tasks it will carry out to promote sound, efficient and consistent supervision across the European Union.

The publication of the SCWP expands on the high-level objective outlined in the Annual Work Programme 2016 and fulfils a key commitment in ESMA’s Strategic Orientation 2016-2020 to outline how it would refocus its resources from single rulebook to supervisory convergence work.
29/03/2016 2016/406 ESMA publishes report on EU accounting enforcement in 2015 Corporate Disclosure, IFRS Supervisory Convergence, Press Releases, Supervisory convergence Press Release PDF
121.47 KB

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its annual report on the enforcement and regulatory activities of accounting enforcers within the European Union (EU) in 2015. ESMA continued strengthening supervisory convergence in the area of financial reporting to improve the consistency and quality across the EU, notably by issuing guidelines, publishing statements on areas of focus and coordinating enforcement decisions.

ESMA and national enforcers examined 189 listed issuers’ compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), across 26 countries, in the areas identified by the 2014 European Common Enforcement Priorities. The examination resulted in enforcement action against 40 (21%) issuers with regulators finding shortcomings in the disclosure of assumptions and judgements related to the:

  • recognition, measurement and disclosures of deferred tax assets arising from tax losses;
  • assessment of control over an entity in the absence of majority equity interest or majority shareholding rights; and
  • classification of joint arrangements.

National enforcers also reviewed the interim or annual financial statements of around 1,200 issuers, representing approximately 20% of issuers of securities listed on EU regulated markets, which led to action against 273 (25%) of those issuers examined. Enforcers found the main deficiencies were related to the presentation of financial statements, impairment of non-financial assets and accounting for financial instruments.

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