21 October 2016

Verena Ross: Regulatory and supervisory developments, the challenges ahead – a European perspective

There is acknowledgement of what ESMA has already achieved over the last 5 years: amongst others building stronger capital markets through rules and principles contributing to financial stability. But, as ESMA has identified in its strategic orientation last year, there is also a clear need for more consistent implementation and stronger supervision, to support investor protection, orderly markets and financial stability.

ESMA together with EBA and EIOPA has been working hard over the last years in finding a suitable cross-sectorial approach for PRIIPs and their manufacturers, working closely with the European Commission that did some important consumer testing work. We believe that the standards we have proposed to the European Commission represent a balanced compromise between the different interests. They are built on considerable stakeholder consultation – three separate consultations and including the input of an expert group.

It seems that some market participants are not convinced by our suggested way forward, probably also because there might still be some concerns related to the implementation of the Insurance Mediation Directive. Indeed, given the timing of the PRIIPs work, there was a clear need for alignment with MiFID 2 but we also had to look at the UCITS KID in this context.

Increasing the transparency of financial instruments will improve the functioning of securities markets. However, more is needed to support capital markets playing a more central role in the financing of the economy. We need to have a well-functioning intermediation process ensuring that financial instruments, find their way properly into the portfolios of asset managers and end-investors. MIFID II very much recognises that this process is still distorted and further improvements are needed in the way investment advice on financial instruments is provided.

Data to assess risks and allow the focus of our limited regulatory and supervisory resources is essential, at both national and European level. In some areas, national authorities already have relevant data, which we can aggregate and benefit from at EU level, in a way that does not create additional burdens for market participants. In other areas national level data is either non-existent or it is not possible to aggregate and use the various pieces of data collected at national level. Here convergence will again be essential. Finally, some data we need to collect ourselves, especially from entities supervised directly by ESMA such as trade repositories and credit rating agencies.

A Capital Markets Union needs to centre around the investor. The aim has to be to achieve for the investor a modern, state-of-the art, genuinely European approach towards disclosure, distribution, data-collection, and cross-border supervisory issues. ESMA will continue its efforts across its four activities of rule-making, supervision, convergence and risk analysis to contribute to a strong investor focus and to sound financial markets in general.

ESMA will continue to work with stakeholders across the different sectors and across the whole of Europe. In particular, we look forward to further building on the already strong cooperation with our Norwegian supervisory colleagues and the Norwegian financial market and investor community.

Full speech

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