FIN.

ESMA speaks on financial markets

Steven Maijoor has spoken on the state of European financial markets. He spoke not only about Brexit, focussing on the need for a  strong supervisory culture, but also on the importance of building the CMU and improving understanding of trends, risks and vulnerabilities in the financial markets. He spoke about the continuing lack of trust in the markets from retail investors which leads to the need for high levels of investor protection. He said MiFID 2 would bring many protections, as would the KID. He said the ESAs are embarking on a major study assessing reporting of costs and past performance of retail investment products. The study will first look at UCITS, and will also consider the differences between active and passive investing, the impact on costs and charges and long term return.

On Brexit, he said Brexit does not mean that the EU should turn its back on the UK and the rest of the globe, and noted that the UK will not become “your average third country”. He said the UK’s position as making up around two thirds of EU equity trading would not change in the near future and that discussions should not lose sight of that.

Emma Radmore