Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 3 2025

13 QUICK LINKS CRYPTOASSETS CSDR EMIR FINTECH FSB OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG T+1 ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE IRELAND LUXEMBOURG NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 3 | 2025 ESMA says it will publish a Final Report and Guidelines in Q4 2025, to bring more certainty for market participants when submitting supplements with security-related information to NCAs across the EU. Link to Consultation Paper here ESMA Launches a CSAwith NCAs on Compliance and Internal Audit Functions On 14 February 2025, ESMA launched a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) with National Competent Authorities (NCAs) on compliance and internal audit functions of UCITS management companies and Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs) across the EU. ESMA says that the CSA will be conducted throughout 2025 and aims to assess to what extent UCITS management companies and AIFMs have established effective compliance and internal audit functions with the adequate staffing, authority, knowledge, and expertise to perform their duties under the AIFM and UCITS Directives. Compliance and internal audit functions are designed to ensure that the internal control mechanisms to monitor, identify, measure, and mitigate any possible risks of non-compliance with the applicable rules are in place. Therefore, ensuring that the entities have robust internal controls is crucial to avoid investor detriment and preserve financial stability. ESMA says the work will be done using a common assessment framework it has developed, which sets out the scope, methodology, supervisory expectations, and timeline on how to carry out a comprehensive supervisory action in a convergent manner. During the year, NCAs will share knowledge and experiences through ESMA to foster convergence in how they supervise the compliance of UCITS management companies and AIFMs with the relevant rules in the area. ESMA will publish a final report with the results of the exercise in 2026. Link to Press Release here ESMA Contributes to Simplification and Burden Reduction On 7 February 2025, ESMA announced that it will be supporting the European Commission’s objective to simplify and reduce the reporting burden in the financial sector. ESMA said its Board of Supervisors discussed, in December 2024, how to best contribute to efficient simplification and burden reduction actions, while preserving the main objectives of financial stability, orderly markets and investor protection. ESMA says that this and other future initiatives will help to reduce cost and complexity for companies, saving time that can be redirected towards other business activities. ESMA will look across its entire remit, including data, policy and supervision, to identify ways to ensure that the measures applicable to market participants are proportionate. The first areas on which ESMA says it has focused are: • Transparency and volume cap regimes; • Transaction reporting; and • Digitalising sustainability and financial disclosure. ESMA says it will continue to engage with its wide range of stakeholders to actively identify areas where further simplification and burden reduction could be achieved, in order to contribute to a more effective and attractive EU capital market. Link to Announcement here