Emisores | The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published the position paper Building more efficient and attractive capital markets in the EU, which includes 20 recommendations to “strengthen EU capital markets and address the needs of European citizens and businesses.”
ESMA’s recommendations for a well-functioning capital market focus on three dimensions: citizens, businesses and the EU regulatory and supervisory framework. According to ESMA, the actions proposed in this paper “go beyond changes in financial regulation and are therefore addressed not only to capital market supervisors but also to EU Member States, the European Commission and EU co-legislators, as well as the financial industry.”
In the “European citizens” chapter, ESMA calls for the development of long-term investment products and pension schemes “that are adequately incentivised and contribute to the development of capital markets – which “should be complemented by efforts to improve financial education”. This would include the creation of a “EU-wide ‘core’ investment product label”.
On the corporate side, the recommendation is to “develop an enabling ecosystem for listed companies and foster pan-European markets, while addressing barriers to integration, in particular for market infrastructures.”
On regulation and supervision, ESMA believes that “modernisation of the EU regulatory framework” should be addressed, while “further centralisation of supervision at EU level should be assessed.”
