ESMA’s activities in 2024 focused on strengthening the EU capital markets and putting citizens and businesses at the heart of it

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published its Annual Report for 2024. The activities conducted and results achieved in 2024 support ESMA’s strategic priorities and thematic drivers - to foster stable and effective markets, strengthen supervision, and enhance retail investor protection while enabling sustainable finance and facilitating technological innovation and the use of data. In 2024, the EU transitioned from one institutional cycle to the next, while being impacted by changes in the economic and geopolitical circumstances. These changes started to reshape and refocus the priorities of the EU and ESMA. ESMA was active in a rich debate about Europe’s challenges and the critical role that capital markets need to play in order to overcome them. A major milestone for ESMA was the publication of the position paper introducing 20 recommendations for strengthening the effectiveness of the EU capital markets and addressing the needs of European citizens and businesses. Through putting into practice the spirit of its recommendations, ESMA made significant progress or finalised measures across its remit, at it:Finalised the Report on shortening the settlement cycle to T+1, a significant step forward in improving markets efficiency and competitiveness and launched the implementation work;Finalised the Rules and guidance for the selection of consolidated tape providers (CTPs);Finalised the policy work...