The purpose of this document is to promote common supervisory approaches and practices in the application of MAR and its implementing measures. It does this by providing responses to questions posed by the general public and competent authorities in relation to the practical application of the MAR framework

The content of this document is aimed at competent authorities to ensure that in their supervisory activities and their actions are converging along the lines of the responses adopted by ESMA and at helping issuers, investors and other market participants by providing clarity on the content of the market abuse rules, rather than creating an extra layer of requirements.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its 2018 Work Programme (WP), which sets out its priorities and areas of focus for 2018 in support of its mission to enhance investor protection and promote stable and orderly financial markets.

For 2018, the key areas of focus under ESMA’s activities of supervisory convergence, assessing risks, single rulebook and direct supervision will be:

• Providing guidance and promoting the consistent application of MiFID II and MiFIR by market participants and National Competent Authorities (NCAs);

• Ensuring the quality, integration, usability and transparency of the data that ESMA collects;

• Contributing to the development of Level 2 measures in relation to the revised Prospectus regime; AND

• Enhancing the effectiveness and lasting impact of supervisory activities at individual credit rating agencies (CRA) and trade repositories (TR) level.

The overall budget for 2018 is expected to be €42,051,386 with a projected staff of 232.

Unauthorised use of ESMA’s identity and logo

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has been informed that its identity and logo have been used in communications targeting company employees in order to request the transfer of company money.

In addition, ESMA has been informed that attempts were made to use the name of a senior member of ESMA staff also for the purpose of fraudulent scams targeting a savings bank and a listed issuer.

Please note that all references to ESMA or any ESMA employees in these communications, which do not originate from ESMA, are entirely false and have been made without ESMA’s knowledge or consent.

In order to protect yourself against these unauthorised communications, ESMA advises you:

• To check whether the e-mail received is genuine;
• To inform your superior in case of suspicious e-mails;
• To contact ESMA if any suspicion arises;
• To contact the police;

Be aware that fraudsters might use ESMA’s name, logo or the name of an ESMA staff member, a bogus website which appears to be that of ESMA, and/or make bogus references to people said to work in ESMA. Be aware of the following when making your checks:

• ESMA is a European Supervisory Authority established by a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council;
• ESMA is based in Paris, France and has no affiliates or branch offices elsewhere;
• ESMA’s emails end with the address @esma.europa.eu;
• ESMA’s telephone number begins with the prefix +33 for France, no other prefix is valid;
• ESMA’s official website can be found at www.esma.europa.eu

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has today published a Discussion Paper (DP) regarding the technical implementation of the incoming Benchmarks Regulation (BR). ESMA is seeking stakeholder’s input to inform its future proposals on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Technical Advice (TA) to the European Commission.

Benchmarks are used in financial markets as a reference to price financial instruments and to measure performance of investment funds, as well as being an important element of many financial contracts and their integrity is critical to financial markets and to investors in particular. The BR’s objective is to improve the governance and control over the benchmark process, thereby ensuring their reliability and protecting users. The changes aim to:

• improve the quality of the input data and methodologies used by benchmark administrators;
• ensure that benchmark contributors provide adequate data and are subject to proper controls; and
• ensure the supervision and viability of critical benchmarks.

Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, said:

“The Benchmark Regulation, once implemented, will ensure the accuracy, robustness and integrity of benchmarks and the benchmark setting process by clarifying the behaviours and standards expected of administrators and contributors. These requirements will ensure that benchmarks are produced in a transparent and reliable manner and so contribute to well-functioning and stable markets, and investor protection.

“ESMA, in preparing for its work on regulatory technical standards and technical advice, is keen to ensure that all affected stakeholders have their views heard on this important topic and we hope that all interested parties will take this opportunity to contribute.”

The DP is seeking stakeholder’s feedback in the following areas:

• definition of benchmarks;
• requirements for the benchmark oversight function;
• requirements for the benchmark input data;
• governance and control requirements for supervised benchmark contributors;
• authorisation and registration of an administrator; and
• transparency requirements regarding the benchmark methodology.

The exact date when the Benchmarks Regulation will enter into force is still unknown as it has not yet been published in the Official Journal of the EU.

Next steps

ESMA will hold an open hearing on the DP on 29 February 2016 in Paris. It will use the responses to its DP to develop detailed implementing measures on which it will publish a follow-up consultation in Q3 2016.

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.