European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)

European Securities and Markets Authority was established by the Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November and is part of the European System of Financial Supervision.

European Securities and Markets Authority was established on 1 January 2011 with seat in Paris, France, as a legal successor to the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and has taken over all existing and ongoing tasks and responsibilities from the CESR.

Main tasks of the ESMA:

  • provide opinions to the Union institutions and develop guidelines, recommendations, and draft regulatory and implementing technical standards,
  • contribute to the consistent application of legally binding Union acts, in particular by contributing to a common supervisory culture, ensuring consistent, efficient and effective application of the Union acts, preventing regulatory arbitrage, mediating and settling disagreements between competent authorities and taking actions, inter alia, in emergency situations
  • improve the cooperation of supervisory authorities, delegation of tasks, functioning of colleges of supervisors and conduct peer review analyses,
  • cooperate with the ESRB, analyze the developments in its field,
  • foster investor protection, improve transparency and disclosure of information.

According to the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on amending Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on credit rating agencies the ESMA should take over from national supervisory authorities the competencies relating to credit rating agencies, e.g. decisions of registration and supervisory decisions.

The Board of Supervisors takes decisions necessary to ensure the performance of the tasks entrusted to ESMA. The Board of Supervisors consists of the following members with voting rights: the head of the national public authority competent for the supervision of financial market participants in each Member State. Members without voting rights are: chair of the ESMA, representatives of the European Commission, ECB, ESRB, EBA and EIOPA.

The chair of the ESMA is Steven Maijoor (Netherland). Members of the Management Board are Karl-Burkhard Caspari (Germany), Jean Guill (Luxembourg), Alexander Justham (United Kingdom), Raul Malmstein (Estonia), Kurt Pribil (Austria) and Fernando Restoy (Spain).

Website of the ESMA: www.esma.europa.eu

Update: May 25, 2011