Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 12 2025

9 QUICK LINKS COSTS & CHARGES CRYPTOASSETS FINTECH FSB IOSCO OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT UNION SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG T+1 ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 12 | 2025 Ms Ross highlighted the following: • Addressing Market Fragmentation: Despite past initiatives, European capital markets remain fragmented, necessitating a dual approach to activate retail investors and improve access to capital for companies. • Digitalisation’s Dual Impact: The rapid shift to online investment platforms offers significant benefits in accessibility and choice but introduces risks like dark patterns, promotion of complex products, and the need to regulate financial influencers. • Centralised Supervision for Integration: To ensure consistent risk monitoring and a level playing field, there is a strong argument for more centralised supervision of cross-border pan-EU financial entities and market infrastructures. Ms Ross concluded by emphasising that a truly integrated financial system is vital for the economic growth and prosperity of both European citizens and companies. Link to Speech here Delivering the Savings and Investments Union in an Era of Simplification and Burden Reduction On 6 November 2025, Natasha Casenave, Executive Director of ESMA, addressed the EFAMA Investment Management Forum, outlining ESMA’s commitment to advancing the SIU through regulatory simplification, burden reduction, and enhanced supervisory convergence. She highlighted the importance of transparency in investment costs and the need to adapt to technological innovations like AI and tokenisation in asset management to foster stronger, more attractive, and future-proof markets. Ms Casenave highlighted the following: • Investment Cost Burden: A recent ESMA report indicates that distribution costs significantly burden investors, constituting 48% of total costs for UCITS and 27% for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), underscoring the critical need for cost transparency. • Regulatory Streamlining: ESMA is actively pursuing simplification and burden reduction through initiatives such as optimising transaction reporting and integrated funds’ reporting, aiming to enhance efficiency and reduce administrative load for market participants. • Embracing Innovation: The speech emphasises the transformative impact of AI and tokenisation on asset management, with ESMA committed to ensuring the regulatory framework supports these developments while addressing potential new risks. Ms Casenave’s speech indicated that ESMA is dedicated to reinforcing the EU’s capital markets and investor protection by streamlining regulations, tackling investment costs, and proactively engaging with emerging technological trends to cultivate a robust and competitive financial environment. Link to Speech here SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG Commission Simplifies Transparency Rules for Sustainable Financial Products On 20November 2025, the European Commission proposed a set of amendments to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the EU’s transparency framework for financial products integrating environmental or social aims. The Commission says the changes are designed to address current shortcomings, making the rules simpler, more efficient, and better alignedwithmarket realities. The Commission also says the revised rules will be more retail-friendly and usable for companies. The Commission says a comprehensive review of the SFDR has shown that the current framework results in disclosures that are too long and complex, making it difficult for investors to understand and compare the environmental or social characteristics of financial products. Moreover, the Commission says the SFDR has effectively been used as a de facto labelling system, causing confusion – particularly for retail investors – and increasing the risk of greenwashing and mis-selling. The Commission notes that as a result, the regulation has not fully met its objectives to help the EU financial sector allocate capital for Europe’s sustainable priorities.