ESMA publishes second consolidated report on sanctions
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its second consolidated report on sanctions and measures imposed in Member States in 2024.
In 2024, more than 970 administrative sanctions and measures were imposed across Member States in financial sectors under ESMA’s remit. The number of administrative sanctions and measures remained stable compared to 2023.
The aggregated value of administrative fines increased comparing to 2023 and amounted to more than EUR 100 million. Similarly to last year, the highest amounts of administrative fines were imposed under the Market Abuse Regulation and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.
This year, more granular data on the types of administrative sanctions and measures, including settlements, were analysed. This shows that more than 60% of all administrative sanctions and measures imposed in 2024 were administrative fines and 10% were issued using settlement procedures. Settlements amounted to more than EUR 20 million.
Overall, the data show discrepancies in the use of sanctioning powers across Member States, for example, in terms of amounts of fines, number and types of sanctions and measures and use of settlements.
The use of sanctions is only one of multiple tools in the national securities markets authorities’ supervisory toolkit, and supervisory effectiveness cannot be measured solely based on the number or value of the sanctions imposed in a Member State.
The data on the use of sanctions included in this report were reported to ESMA by the national securities markets authorities. In line with the ESMA Strategy 2023-2028, the consolidated report contributes to supervisory and enforcement convergence and facilitates greater transparency on sanctions. Enhancing enforcement convergence in the EU financial sector is also key for the Savings and Investments Union.
Next steps
Building on this report, ESMA will further foster discussions between national securities markets authorities on the effective and consistent implementation of capital markets rules and continue working towards ensuring that similar breaches lead to similar enforcement outcomes across the EU, irrespective of where they have been initiated.
The underlying data are available in excel format. In addition, a snapshot of the report’s key findings is published here.
Further information:
Solveig Kleiveland
Team Leader - Communications
press@esma.europa.eu