ESMA

  • EMIR 3 Clearing Thresholds: The New Uncleared and Aggregate Test

    The number that decides whether a firm falls inside the EU clearing obligation is about to be measured differently. Under EMIR 3, Regulation (EU) 2024/2987, the EMIR 3 clearing thresholds stop asking how much a counterparty trades over the counter and start asking how much it leaves uncleared. On 25 February 2026 ESMA published its…

  • ESMA CAFI Guidelines: When a Crypto-Asset Is a Financial Instrument

    On 17 December 2024 the European Securities and Markets Authority published its Final Report and, in Annex III, the Guidelines on the conditions and criteria for the qualification of crypto-assets as financial instruments, reference ESMA75453128700-1323. That document, often shortened to the CAFI Guidelines, addresses whether a crypto-asset qualifies as a financial instrument and is therefore…

  • EU T+1 Settlement: First Deadline Is 7 December 2026

    The European Union will move to a T+1 securities settlement cycle on 11 October 2027. ESMA identifies 7 December 2026 as the first regulatory deadline for allocations and confirmations. The European Commission adopted the amending Delegated Regulation on 6 July 2026 as C(2026) 4640 final; it is currently under scrutiny by the European Parliament and…

  • MiFID II Triangular Passporting: ESMA’s July 2026 Supervisory Briefing

    On 7 July 2026 ESMA published a supervisory briefing on triangular passporting under MiFID II (reference ESMA35-243228190-8065), and the CSSF relayed it to Luxembourg professionals in a communique dated 17 July 2026. Triangular passporting is the arrangement where an authorised investment firm serves clients in one Member State through a branch or tied agent it…

  • MiFIR DPE Notification: Luxembourg’s Publishing Entity Filing

    On 13 July 2026 the CSSF published its MiFIR DPE notification template, a short XLSX form that Luxembourg credit institutions and investment firms use to apply for designated publishing entity (DPE) status under Article 21a of MiFIR. The form is the point at which a firm formally tells its national regulator that it is willing…

  • ESMA Risk Management Function CSA: The 2026-2027 Supervisory Review

    On 3 July 2026, ESMA told every UCITS management company and alternative investment fund manager in the European Union that their risk management function is next in line for coordinated scrutiny. The announcement launched a Common Supervisory Action, an exercise ESMA will run with national competent authorities throughout 2026 and 2027, with a final report…

  • FASTER Directive Market Capitalisation Data: Securities Scope

    On 10 July 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority published the first set of market capitalisation figures and ratios for EU Member States under the FASTER Directive, Council Directive (EU) 2025/50. The figures cover reference years 2024 and 2025, and they start a multi-year clock that will decide which national markets have to build…

  • CSSF AIFM Reporting Dashboard: Benchmarking Your Annex IV Filing

    On 15 July 2026 the CSSF published its AIFM Reporting Dashboard covering the position as at 31 December 2025. The document aggregates the Annex IV returns that authorised and registered AIFMs file, and it is the closest thing the Luxembourg alternative fund sector has to a public benchmark. The CSSF AIFM reporting dashboard adds no…

  • ESMA July 2026 Q&As: ESG Ratings, MiCA and Consolidated Tape

    On 10 July 2026 ESMA announced thirteen Q&A repository items across the EU ESG Ratings Regulation, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and MiFIR secondary markets. All thirteen items carry published answers. The individual records also show that several answers pre-date 10 July 2026. None of the thirteen published answers creates a new reporting template or…