ESMA’s activities in 2024 focused on strengthening the EU capital markets and putting citizens and businesses at the heart of it

In 2024, the EU transitioned from one institutional cycle to the next, while being impacted by changes in the economic and geopolitical circumstances. These changes started to reshape and refocus the priorities of the EU and ESMA. ESMA was active in a rich debate about Europe’s challenges and the critical role that capital markets need to play in order to overcome them. 

A major milestone for ESMA was the publication of the position paper introducing 20 recommendations for strengthening the effectiveness of the EU capital markets and addressing the needs of European citizens and businesses. 

Through putting into practice the spirit of its recommendations, ESMA made significant progress or finalised measures across its remit, at it:

• Finalised the Report on shortening the settlement cycle to T+1, a significant step forward in improving markets efficiency and competitiveness and launched the implementation work;
• Finalised the Rules and guidance for the selection of consolidated tape providers (CTPs);
• Finalised the policy work under the regulatory regime for crypto-assets, dedicated significant efforts to promote consistency in the application of the new rules and put in place an integrated monitoring of the crypto-asset markets;
• Made significant progress in the development of the European Single Access Point (ESAP), which will become operational in 2026 and bring simplification and benefits to investors and the industry;
• Implemented steps to optimise the use of financial market data across the EU, while at the same time introducing the changes in the transparency framework under the MiFIR review that will contribute to a significant reduction in the reporting burden for market participants;
• Enhanced investor protection by running common supervisory actions and a mystery shopping exercise on marketing communications which allowed ESMA to identify and publicise key risks;
• Improved the information available to investors by issuing guidelines on the use of ESG and sustainability-related terms in fund names to reduce the risk of greenwashing; and
• Strengthened ESMA’s role as a data hub by upgrading data collection and analysis, advancing AI-powered tools and improving data accessibility, and migrating all ESMA’s datasets and analytical tools to its new ‘big data’ platform.

ESMA significantly advanced its supervisory effectiveness in 2024, scaling up risk-based and data-driven supervision across its mandates. Key actions included the execution of EU-wide stress tests with over 30 central counterparties (CCPs), the enhancement of third-country CCP oversight, enforcement measures such as the sanctioning of a credit rating agency for conflicts of interest, and the roll-out of transversal guidelines to harmonise supervisory practices. ESMA also published the first consolidated report on sanctions and measures imposed by the NCAs and launched supervisory colleges for complex cross-border entities. These efforts reflect ESMA’s commitment to effective supervision, now also tracked through a dedicated Key Outcome Indicator measuring the proportion of elevated supervisory risks addressed through direct supervision and convergence actions.

Finally, ESMA focused on preparations for new supervisory mandates notably in relation to its upcoming supervisory role over EU green bond verifiers and ESG rating providers, as well as ensuring a sound process for the selection and authorisation of the future CTPs.

Further information:

Solveig Kleiveland

Team Leader - Communications
press@esma.europa.eu 
 

Aleksandra Bojanić

Senior Communications Officer
press@esma.europa.eu