Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 7 2025

12 QUICK LINKS AIFMD CSDR ELIGIBLE ASSETS DIRECTIVE EMIR FINTECH FSB MIFID II/MIFIR SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG VIRTUAL ASSETS ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 7 | 2025 ESMA intends to adopt a reasoned decision on the selected applicant by the end of 2025. ESMA also explains that the successful applicant will be selected to operate the CTP for a period of five years and be invited to apply for authorisation with ESMA. Once authorised, the CTP will be supervised by ESMA. Link to ESMA Announcement here ESMA Publishes 2024 Annual Report On 16 June 2025, ESMA published its Annual Report for 2024. ESMA says that the activities conducted, and results achieved in 2024 support its strategic priorities and thematic drivers – to foster stable and effective markets, strengthen supervision, and enhance retail investor protection while enabling sustainable finance and facilitating technological innovation and the use of data. A major milestone for ESMA was the publication of the position paper introducing 20 recommendations for strengthening the effectiveness of the EU capital markets and addressing the needs of European citizens and businesses. Through putting into practice, the spirit of its recommendations, ESMA says it made significant progress or finalised measures across its remit, as it: • Finalised the Report on shortening the settlement cycle to T+1; • Finalised the Rules and guidance for the selection of consolidated tape providers (CTPs); • Finalised the policy work under the regulatory regime for crypto-assets, dedicated significant efforts to promote consistency in the application of the new rules and put in place an integrated monitoring of the crypto-asset markets; • Made significant progress in the development of the European Single Access Point (ESAP), which will become operational in 2026; • Implemented steps to optimise the use of financial market data across the EU, while at the same time introducing the changes in the transparency framework under the MiFIR review that will contribute to a significant reduction in the reporting burden for market participants; • Enhanced investor protection by running common supervisory actions and a mystery shopping exercise on marketing communications which allowed ESMA to identify and publicise key risks; • Improved the information available to investors by issuing guidelines on the use of ESG and sustainability-related terms in fund names to reduce the risk of greenwashing; and • Strengthened ESMA’s role as a data hub by upgrading data collection and analysis, advancing AI-powered tools and improving data accessibility, and migrating all ESMA’s datasets and analytical tools to its new ‘big data’ platform. ESMA says that it significantly advanced its supervisory effectiveness in 2024, scaling up risk- based and data-driven supervision across its mandates. Key actions included the execution of EU-wide stress tests with over 30 central counterparties (CCPs), the enhancement of third- country CCP oversight, enforcement measures such as the sanctioning of a credit rating agency for conflicts of interest, and the roll-out of transversal guidelines to harmonise supervisory practices. Finally, ESMA focused on preparations for new supervisory mandates notably in relation to its upcoming supervisory role over EU green bond verifiers and ESG rating providers, as well as ensuring a sound process for the selection and authorisation of the future CTPs. Link to ESMA’s 2024 Annual Report here