EU calls for ideas on improving supervision of financial markets

The European Commission wants to hear about obstacles to financial market integration. As part of the EU’s new Savings & Investment Union strategy, it has launched an eight-week consultation posing nearly 400 questions across a range of topics, with the potential to significantly impact the EU regulatory agenda in the coming years. The consultation closes on 10 June and the responses will inform draft legislation due before the end of this year.

SIU strategy

As set out in a recent communication, the SIU aims to mobilise savings for productive investment. Under the strategy, the Commission plans to propose measures to improve cross-border provision of funds and reduce operational barriers facing asset managers. The Commission also wants to improve supervisory convergence and is considering transferring some supervisory tasks for capital markets from national Member States to EU authorities.

Consultation survey

The consultation seeks feedback on:

1. barriers in general to the integration and modernisation of trading and post-trading infrastructures, the distribution of funds across the EU and efficient cross-border operations of asset management; and
2. barriers specifically linked to supervision.

The consultation takes the form of a survey asking a range of questions on the supervision of EU financial market participants, including CCPs, EU trading venues, funds and asset managers.

We have included a small sample of the questions below.

General barriers

• Is there a need for greater proportionality in the EU regulatory framework related to the trade, post trade, asset management and funds sectors?
• Are there any barriers that could be addressed by turning (certain provisions of) AIFMD, the Financial Collateral Directive, MiFID, Settlement Finality Directive and UCITS into a Regulation?
• Are there areas that would benefit from simplification in the interplay between different EU regulatory frameworks (e.g. between asset management framework and MiFID)?
• Would the PRIIPs KID [key information document] benefit from being streamlined and simplified?
• What is your assessment of the effectiveness of the best execution rules in the EU?
• Under the current MiFIR, the speed at which core market data is disseminated by the equity consolidated tape is not regulated. How important do you deem defining in legislation the speed at which core market data should be disseminated by the equity consolidated tape? What should be the adequate speed?
• What is your assessment of the current levels of dark trading in the EU on orderly markets and sound price discovery?

Supervision

There are several questions on the effectiveness of the current supervisory framework. This includes detailed questions on the supervision of central counterparties, central securities depositories, trading venues, asset managers and cryptoasset service providers.

The Commission wants to hear if there is demand for more integrated supervision of these firms at the EU level. For example, respondents are asked if they would support having a single EU supervisor responsible for the licensing and supervision of all EU firms in a given sector (e.g. CCPs, CSDs, CASPs or asset managers).

Next steps

Responses to the survey are invited by 10 June 2025. The Commission will propose legislative measures in Q4 2025.