Today, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission announce the launch of a new working group tasked with the identification and adoption of a "risk-free overnight rate" which can serve as a basis for an alternative to current benchmarks used in a variety of financial instruments and contracts in the euro area.

The working group, chaired by a private sector representative and with the Secretariat to be provided by the ECB, will regularly consult market participants and end-users, as well as gather feedback from other public authorities. Its terms of reference will be made public and the group will regularly report on its meetings. This is to ensure transparency on all steps in the identification and adoption of a new risk free rate.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)’s latest report on Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities No. 2, 2017 (TRV) identifies high asset price valuations as the major risk for European financial markets in the second half of 2017. The main risk drivers are uncertainties around geo-political developments, the resilience of economic growth as well as debt sustainability. Market and credit risks, as a result of geopolitical, growth and debt concerns, continued to be very high, while liquidity and contagion risks remained stable but high. Operational risk remains elevated but the outlook is now negative due to heightened concerns around cyber security. Overall, ESMA’s risk assessment for the second half of 2017 remains unchanged from 1H17.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published three Opinions setting out sector-specific principles in the areas of investment firms, investment management and secondary markets, aimed at fostering consistency in authorisation, supervision and enforcement related to the relocation of entities, activities and functions from the United Kingdom .

The opinions, building on the general opinion issued in May, are practical tools to support supervisory convergence in the context of requests from UK financial market participants seeking to relocate to the EU27. They are addressed to national competent authorities (NCAs) and are relevant for market participants considering relocating.

They provide guidance to NCAs aimed at ensuring a consistent interpretation of the requirements relating to authorisation, supervision and enforcement in order to avoid the development of regulatory and supervisory arbitrage risks.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an Opinion setting out general principles aimed at fostering consistency in authorisation, supervision and enforcement related to the relocation of entities, activities and functions from the United Kingdom. The opinion is addressed to national competent authorities (NCAs), in particular of the 27 Member States that will remain in the EU (EU27).

The opinion is a practical tool to support supervisory convergence in the context of increased requests from UK financial market participants seeking to relocate to the EU27. It covers all legislation referred to in the ESMA Regulation, in particular the AIFMD, the UCITS Directive, MiFID I and MiFID II.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has fined Moody’s Deutschland GmbH (Moody’s Germany) €750,000 and Moody’s Investors Service Limited (Moody’s UK) €490,000, and issued a public notice, for two negligent breaches of the Credit Rating Agencies Regulation (CRAR).

ESMA found that Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK negligently committed two infringements of the CRAR regarding their public announcement of certain ratings and their public disclosure of methodologies used to determine those ratings. These failures concern nineteen ratings issued between June 2011 and December 2013 for nine supranational entities including the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, the European Stability Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Union.

In September 2016, the FSMA, as the national competent authority for Belgium, established the Euribor college and chaired its inaugural meeting. The college includes ESMA, the national competent authorities of the various banks contributing to the Euribor, as well as the national competent authorities of Member States for which the Euribor presents a systemic character because of its importance for their real economy, for the financing of households and enterprises, or for consumers in general. The Euribor college, chaired by the FSMA, currently consists of 17 national supervisory authorities and ESMA. The ECB has attended its meetings as an invited expert.

In 2015, EMMI developed a methodology that would ground the Euribor entirely on transactions (“Euribor+”) and has subsequently carried out a “pre-live verification” exercise, based on data gathered from 31 banks over a period running from September 2016 to February 2017. On May 4^th 2017, after consultation with the FSMA and as a result of its pre-live verification exercise, EMMI published its decision not to pursue a transition to the proposed Euribor+ methodology in the short term.

The college of Euribor takes note of this decision and will continue to engage with EMMI on alternative plans for Euribor reform and transition.

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 2016.

ESMA, in 2016, continued strengthening supervisory convergence in the area of financial reporting, to improve the consistency and quality across the EU. ESMA achieves this through coordinating the national enforcers’ decisions, publishing annual enforcement priorities and publishing statements on areas of focus such as the implementation of the new standards IFRS 9 and IFRS 15.