European

ESMA publishes principles for third-party risk supervision

On 12 June 2025, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published the principles on third-party risks supervision. The 14 principles on third-party risks aim to address the risks stemming from the use of third-party services by supervised entities. The principles provide a common supervisory framework for the national competent authorities to identify, assess and supervise third-party risks.

ESMA launches selection of consolidated tape provider for shares and ETFs

On 20 June 2025, ESMA launched the first selection procedure for the consolidated tape provider (CTP) for shares and exchange traded funds (ETFs). The CTP consolidates pre-trade and post-trade data from data contributors in order to enhance market transparency and efficiency. Consolidating market activity in this way aims to assist market participants in accessing accurate and timely information and to help them make better-informed decisions leading to more efficient price discovery and trading.

The relevant regulatory technical standards were adopted by the European Commission on 12 June 2025 and these will be used as the basis for the assessment of certain criteria.

ESMA intends to adopt a reasoned decision on the selected CTP by the end of 2025 and the selected applicant will operate the CTP for five years and will then be invited to apply for authorisation by ESMA and thereafter become subject to supervision by ESMA.

ESMA issues call for evidence on streamlining financial transaction reporting and delays amendments to certain reporting framework RTS’ under MiFIR II

ESMA has issued a call for evidence to gather feedback on opportunities to simplify, better integrate and streamline financial transaction reporting.

The initiative is part of ESMA’s broader ‘data strategy’ and burden reduction efforts and seeks feedback on how to reduce reporting costs and complexity while maintaining transparency and effective oversight.

ESMA is considering two main options for simplification:

• eliminating overlaps between existing reporting regimes (such as MiFIR, EMIR and SFTR) without changing current channels
• introducing a unified reporting template based on a ‘report once’ principle to replace multiple reporting frameworks

While ESMA considers the feedback received, it will not propose amendments to certain existing MiFIR reporting frameworks that it had recommended in public consultations on existing RTS’ – namely RTS’ on transaction reporting under Article 26 of MiFIR (RTS 22), order book data under Article 25 of MiFIR (RTS 24) and reference data under Article 27 of MiFIR (RTS 23). Instead, ESMA has published final reports summarising the feedback received from market participants to the consultations on the review of RTS 22, RTS 24 and RTS 23.

Putting on hold the amendments to the three sets of RTS’ will allow market participants to freeze their implementation efforts relating to these RTS’, already contributing to burden reduction by avoiding implementation cost in the short term. The rest of the amendments under MIFIR II will go ahead as planned.

The deadline for responses to the call for evidence is 19 September 2025, and ESMA plans to publish a final report in early 2026 outlining key cost drivers and the proposed way forward.

For more information on these topics please contact any member of A&L Goodbody's Asset Management & Investment Funds team.

This publication provides an overview of certain legal and regulatory developments that may be of interest to certain entities. It does not purport to provide analysis of law or legal advice and is strictly for information purposes only.