The working paper proposes new measures for systemic risk in the hedge fund sector. These measures are based on the ability of hedge funds to influence (be influenced by) the performance trend of the entire hedge fund sector. The proposed measures display a high ability to identify periods of financial distress, are robust to modifications in the underlying econometric model and deliver an innovation in the monitoring of systemic risks in the fund industry.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is publishing a summary of its 2014 supervisory work plan in relation to trade repositories (TRs) with the aim of enhancing the transparency of its actions regarding TRs in the European Union. TRs centrally collect and maintain the records of derivative trades and play a central role in enhancing the transparency of derivative markets and reducing risks to financial stability. In November 2013, ESMA registered six TRs. The obligation for counterparties to report their derivative trades to registered TRs began on 12 February 2014. Under Titles VI and VII of Regulation EU 648/2012 (EMIR), the direct supervision of TRs has been entrusted to ESMA, who has started to supervise the six registered TRs. Supervision of TRs by ESMA is crucial to ensuring that TRs comply on an on-going basis with all EMIR requirements, thereby enabling regulators to access data and details of derivative contracts in order for them to fulfil their respective mandates.

ERRATUM - In the original version of this document published on 19 October 2017 in table V.3 on page 4, the values in the last four rows of column five were accidentally misreported. For this reason, ESMA now provides a corrected version, including the corrected values and a footnote pointing to the initial mistake.

ESMA carried out a first analysis on fund performance measures, developing initial metrics to analyse the impact of ongoing fees, one-off charges and inflation on the returns of mutual funds. Key preliminary results for the EU fund industry show: Substantial reduction in net returns available to investors, especially in the retail sector and weakly cost- or price-sensitive investment decisions by retail investors

On average ongoing fees and one-off charges and inflation-reduced returns available to investors by 29% of gross returns between 2013 and 2015. These reductions apply to all market segments, while varying across jurisdictions, asset classes and client types. Relative return reductions range from 11% for passive equity fund shares to 44% for retail fund shares in bond mutual funds. Relative and absolute return reductions for actively managed and retail fund shares tend to exceed those of passively managed and institutional fund shares. Despite the impact of fees and charges on the net outcome to investors, these do not seem to be reflected in investor choices.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is publishing this discussion paper in order to seek stakeholders’ views on the preparation of the regulatory technical standards ESMA is required to draft under Article 5(2) “Clearing Obligation Procedure” of the Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and Council on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories (EMIR). The input from stakeholders will help ESMA in the development of the relevant technical standards to be drafted and submitted to the European Commission for endorsement in the form of Commission Regulations, i.e. a legally binding instrument directly applicable in all Member States of the European Union. One essential element in the development of draft technical standards is the analysis of the costs and benefits that those legal provisions will imply. Input in this respect and any supportive data will be highly appreciated and kept confidential where required. Please respond to the consultation using the response template. The closing date for responses is 12 September 2013.