EU finance ministers approve a position that excludes four trading venues, including Deutsche Börse and BME, from ESMA's direct oversight. The Commission criticises that the agreement falls "far short" of the necessary ambition.
European Union finance ministers approved on Friday the key elements of their negotiating position on the integration of capital markets, an agreement that expands the powers of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) but is far from Brussels' initial proposal. According to La Vanguardia, the deal excludes four trading venues, three central counterparties, and two securities depositories from ESMA's direct oversight, firms that the Commission considers "clearly significant".
The European Commissioner for Financial Services, the Portuguese Maria Luís Albuquerque, deeply regretted that the reached compromise "falls far short of the level of ambition necessary to achieve the objectives of the integration and oversight package for the markets." In practice, the exclusion of these operators means that fewer entities will be under the direct control of ESMA, based in Paris.
"It disincentivises operators from reaching sufficient scale at the European level"
Albuquerque warned that the agreement sends "the wrong signal" because it disincentivises operators from reaching sufficient scale at the European level. The text, led by the Irish presidency of the EU Council, maintains ESMA's direct oversight over large trading platforms, central counterparties, securities depositories, and all crypto-asset providers, but limits controls to the largest crypto-asset providers and modifies the criteria for classifying other firms as significant.
The agreement also grants a greater role to national supervisors, such as the CNMV in Spain, in a board that can request to be consulted before making important decisions. The Spanish Minister of Economy and First Vice President, Carlos Cuerpo, voted in favour of the agreement as an important step in the "right direction," although he acknowledged that he would have preferred greater ambition in some aspects.
The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, shared the "concerns" of the community executive. The Commissioner for Economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, acknowledged that he would have liked a more ambitious outcome but valued the agreement as an important step in the negotiations. Now the ball is in the court of the European Parliament, which could be tougher than the member states.
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