ESMA suggests amendments to the DLT Pilot Regime to make it permanent

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, published today a report on the Distributed Ledger Technology Pilot Regime (DLT Pilot Regime), providing an overview of the EU market for authorised DLT market infrastructures and recommendations on how to expand participation in the Regime.  The report contains information about business models, types of DLT financial instruments offered, and technical or legal issues encountered by supervisors to date. It also analyses the types of exemptions requested by DLT market infrastructures and the conditions under which National Competent Authorities (NCA’s) have granted those exemptions (including the compensatory measures imposed to mitigate risks).   This report comes at an inflection point for the DLT Pilot Regime, which, despite an initially limited uptake, is now seeing growing interest from potential applicants. This recent momentum confirms the relevance of continued efforts to enhance the regime’s attractiveness and functionality. To build on this momentum, ESMA presents strategic recommendations to the European Commission (EC), prepared with feedback received by NCAs and the European Central Bank (ECB), about:  how to make the DLT Pilot Regime more attractive to the market, and suggested amendments to the Pilot Regime to make it permanent and allow for more flexibility in the regulatory thresholds or eligible assets depending on the risks of each business...