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EU Markets Unite: New Package Boosts Capital Integration
24 Dec
Summary
- EU Commission proposes a major package for financial market integration.
- Measures aim to eliminate barriers in trading, post-trading, and asset management.
- Supervision will be enhanced, with ESMA gaining direct oversight powers.
The European Commission has unveiled a comprehensive legislative package designed to fully integrate EU financial markets and address their persistent fragmentation and underperformance. This flagship initiative under the Savings and Investments Union Strategy seeks to enhance the EU's competitiveness by enabling seamless cross-border operations for financial institutions.
The proposed measures tackle barriers in trading, post-trading, and asset management, aiming to reduce cost differences for market participants. It includes enhanced passporting for regulated markets and central securities depositories, a new 'Pan-European Market Operator' status, and simplified cross-border distribution of investment funds. The package also facilitates innovation by adapting regulations for distributed ledger technology.
Furthermore, the initiative streamlines supervision by transferring direct oversight of significant market infrastructures and crypto-asset service providers to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The European Parliament and the Council of the EU will now commence negotiations, with legislative procedures expected to take approximately 24 months, potentially longer due to the sensitive nature of the proposals.
