The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published today its 2019 Supervision Work Programme, which details the main areas of focus for the upcoming year for ESMA’s supervision of Trade Repositories (TRs), Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs), and the monitoring of third-country market infrastructures such as third-country central clearing counterparties (TC-CCPs) and third-country Central Securities Depositories (TC-CSDs).

ESMA currently directly supervises eight TRs and 27 CRAs. It also carries responsibility for four certified CRAs and 32 TC-CCPs.

Main priorities for 2019

For CRAs and TRs in the EU, ESMA uses a risk-based approach to establish its annual Supervision...

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has agreed to renew the prohibition of the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail clients, in effect since 2 July 2018, for a further three-month period.

ESMA has carefully considered the need to extend the intervention measure currently in effect. It considers that a significant investor protection concern related to the offer of binary options to retail clients continues to exist. ESMA has therefore agreed to renew the measure from 2 April 2019...