In his address Mr Maijoor’s focused on fund liquidity and how asset management can play a role in the Capital Markets Union, while supporting investor protection and financial stability.

The speech covered:

·         The concept of liquidity;

·         Liquidity as a long-running concern in asset management;

·         Challenges pose by the low-yield environment;

·         How fund liquidity is a core activity for ESMA;

·         Stress testing; and

·         Supervisory action and liquidity requirements under UCITS.

In his address Mr Maijoor looked back at the implementation of MiFID II highlighting key achievements in both retail and wholesale markets since coming into force in January 2018 such as:

• improved transparency in financial markets;
• the move of trading onto regulated trading venues; 
• improved information to clients on the costs of products;
• research unbundling; and
• the use of product intervention powers on CFDs and binary options.

​He acknowledged though that while these were positive developments there are also areas where improvements may need to be considered to ensure that MiFID II delivers on its objectives and is applied in a convergent and coherent manner across the European Union.

The speech also highlighed forthcoming MiFID II related work, aside from its contribution to the many MiFID II follow-up review reports, such as ESMA's contribution to the Commission's report on the disclosure of fees, commissions and non-monetary benefits as well as the report on the mechanism for banning certain products; PRIIPS and the consolidated tape.

In his speech Mr. Maijoor focused on ESMA's role under the Benchmarks Regulation, in particular the implementation of the 3rd country regimes, the advice it provides to national competent authorities and it's role as a member of the colleges of European critical benchmarks - LIBOR, EURIBOR and EONIA. He also outlined ESMA's future supervisory responsibilities relating to 3rd country benchmarks administrators and EU critical benchmarks under the ESAs Review.

He also reflected on ESMA's active participation in the on-going global work in reforming interest rates including its participation in FSB and IOSCO groups along with role in the ​EUR Working Group on euro risk-free rates ​together with the European Central Bank, European Commission and the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority. 

His speech focused on the role of corporate governance to attract retail investors to the financial markets, the EU's Capital Markets Union and the role of ESMA. 

The address focused on ​Building the EU Capital Markets Union while fostering global financial markets ​covering topics such as sustainable finance, cryptocurrencies and EU markets supervision, while also focusing on equivalence, ESMA's new supervisory powers over EU entities and third country responsibilities.