European Securities and Markets Authority Publishes 2020 Work Priorities

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its Annual Work Programme for 2020. The Work Programme sets out ESMA’s focus areas for 2020 and provides details of expected outputs within each of the areas. In 2019, the European Council, Parliament and Commission agreed on new tasks for ESMA, meaning that ESMA will take on an enhanced role in areas including direct supervision, supervisory convergence and investor protection. The final Regulations amending the scope of the European Supervisory Authorities’ work mandates are expected to be published in the second half of 2019.
 
The focus priorities, which cover the various sectors for which ESMA is responsible, are:
 
ESMA will implement the amended governance structure that has been proposed under the ESA Regulation. It will also enhance its supervisory toolkit by revising its peer review methodologies and establishing a web-based tool for the submission and publication of Q&As. The implementation of the further revisions to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation known as EMIR 2.2 (which has yet to enter into force) and other legislative developments, including the new Investment Firms Framework and draft Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation, will require ESMA to carry out a range of work such as finalization of level two measures.
 
ESMA will continue to monitor implementation of the amended EMIR framework, including providing guidance on the implementation of CCP requirements, the changes introduced under the EMIR Refit and the implementation of the Central Securities Depositaries Regulation. It also aims to improve supervisory convergence for implementation of the Market Abuse Regulation through the issuance of Q&As, advice and supervisory briefings.
 
ESMA will continue to monitor financial activities and retail investor trends, focusing particularly on financial innovation, including financial technology. It will also continue with its market intelligence gathering and data collection activities and its development of retail risk indicators.
 
ESMA will aim to develop Technical Standards and advice under the EMIR reforms and will submit reports to the European Commission in connection with the CSD Regulation and EMIR, as required. It will also assist the European Commission with its Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II reports and provide support on equivalence assessments of third-country regimes. ESMA will continue working on its technical advice on the Market Abuse Regulation and will develop draft Technical Standards concerning accepted market practices and the format of alleviated insider lists. ESMA will also maintain an active role in implementing the Credit Rating Agency Regulation.
 
In its supervision of CRAs, ESMA aims to tackle key risks to its objective that CRAs be independent, objective and of adequate quality. In supervising trade repositories, ESMA’s main objective will be to continue to enhance the quality of data reported to trade repositories under EMIR. To achieve this, it will engage with individual trade repositories, conduct investigations identifying risks and assess applications for registration of trade repositories in a timely manner. ESMA will continue to focus on its role of registering new securitization repositories and will employ its new supervisory toolkit to address key 2020 risks and priorities.
 
View ESMA's 2020 Annual Work Programme.
 
View details of ESMA's consultation on EMIR 2.2.
 
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