On 11 March 2021, EFAMA and 14 trade associations representing a wide range of stakeholders in the European and global financial markets wrote to the European Commission and ESMA raising concerns about the implementation of the mandatory buy-in requirement under the EU’s CSDR Settlement Discipline Regime.
Capital markets
Investment managers, acting on behalf of their retail and institutional clients, are among the largest investors in financial markets. They represent a key component of the market’s “buy-side” segment.
In representing the interests of its members on wholesale capital market issues, EFAMA advocates for fair, deep, liquid, and transparent capital markets, supported by properly regulated and supervised market infrastructure.
Joint trade association letter regarding Implementation of CSDR SDR
EFAMA reply to ESMA CP on marketing communications guidelines
EFAMA believes that ESMA’s draft ‘marketing communication’ Guidelines still require important clarifications to ensure full alignment between them and MiFID II’s Commission Delegated Regulation Article 44. This alignment is essential to ensure coherent rules for fund management companies and distributors. Unfortunately, parts of the proposed Guidelines are overly prescriptive and may unintentionally make some marketing materials vaguer or even inconsistent with local MiFID requirements for distributors.
EFAMA's reply to EC's consultation on the Review of CSDR
EFAMA supports the main objectives of CSDR to increase the safety and efficiency of securities settlement, including:
- Shorter settlement periods,
- Prudential and supervisory requirements for CSDs and other institutions providing banking services ancillary to securities settlement,
- The imposition of a penalty regime under CSDR as an important step towards improving settlement efficiency in European capital markets.
EFAMA statement on European exchanges’ bid to run a consolidated equities tape
EFAMA welcomes the recent proposal by European exchanges to build a consolidated tape. This affirms the buy-side’s long standing view that a European consolidated tape is key to completing the objectives of the Capital Markets Union and ensuring that European capital markets remain globally competitive. We have identified important use-cases for institutional and retail investors alike, not least in the ability to receive best execution on trades.
EFAMA, ICSA & MFA welcome IOSCO Feedback Statement on “Market Data in the Secondary Equity Market”
3 June 2022 - EFAMA, ICSA and MFA (the Associations) have read IOSCO’s Feedback Statement on “Market Data in the Secondary Equity Market” following the IOSCO consultation in 2021, and warmly welcome its conclusions.
The Associations would like to draw attention towards the executive summary in particular, where a number of valuable insights and recommendations are presented. For example, we fully support the statement below, though we would suggest an important addition:
Cross-Industry Consensus on EU Equity Consolidated Tape
EFAMA, AFME, BVI and Cboe Europe Agree Cross-Industry Consensus on EU Equity Consolidated Tape
Monday 30 May, 2022 - AFME, BVI, Cboe Europe and EFAMA have today jointly published a position paper which provides a set of key principles needed to ensure the successful creation of an EU Equity Consolidated Tape (CT).
Advancing EU capital markets: Prioritising key targets for the Savings and Investments Union
Household Participation in Capital Markets
This report analyses the progress made in recent years by European households in allocating more of their financial wealth to capital market instruments (pension plans, life insurance, investment funds, debt securities and listed shares) and less in cash and bank deposits. It also includes policy recommendations on improving retail participation in capital markets, including for the Retail Investment Strategy currently under discussion.
Some key findings include:
Buy-side use-cases for a real-time consolidated tape
A real-time consolidated tape, provided it is made available at a reasonable cost, will bring many benefits to European capital markets. A complete and consistent view of market-wide prices and trading volumes is necessary for any market, though this is especially true for the EU where trading is fragmented across a large number of trading venues. A real-time consolidated tape should cover equities and bonds, delivering data in ‘as close to real-time as technically possible’ after receipt of the data from the different trade venues.