Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 8 2026

5 AIFMD CRYPTOASSETS EMIR FINTECH IOSCO MIFID II/MIFIR OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG T+1 ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 8 | 2026 Quick Links The Annual Report presents the outcomes of the joint cross-sectoral monitoring activities during its first year of operation in 2025. ESMA says the key findings include: • The results of the JMM’s AAR monitoring activities, which form the preliminary findings presented in the Interim Report. • An analysis of broader cross-border developments beyond the AAR, with a particular focus on the United States. The analysis confirms considerable cross-border dependencies, reflecting the global nature of EU and US cleared markets and their participants. While these linkages support market efficiency, liquidity and risk sharing, they may also create channels through which shocks could propagate. • An assessment of trends affecting EU CCPs, highlighting the expansion of asset classes and products cleared in the EU and illustrating the capacity of EU CCPs to respond to evolving regulatory and market conditions. • A stocktaking exercise of existing EU-wide stress tests, with a view to explore synergies with aspects related to the broader EU clearing ecosystem. As a next step, ESMA says it will develop a dedicated methodology to assess the effectiveness of the AAR, which will inform the second stage of the final assessment in 2027. Link to InterimReport of the Effectiveness of the Active Account Requirement here Link to First Annual Report of the Joint Monitoring Mechanism here FINTECH A SPOT in the Dark: Using AI to Assess Financial Stability Risks On 29 July 2026, the European Central Bank (ECB) published Working Paper 3262 “A SPOT in the dark: using AI to assess financial stability risks.” In the Working Paper, the ECB proposes a novel framework to quantify adverse trigger events that result in financial stability risks, using artificial intelligence (AI) and large-scale text analysis. By employing Large Language Models, the ECB extracted information about the Severity and Probability Of potential Trigger events (SPOT) from a large dataset of financial news articles over the period 2005 – 2026. The ECB says the SPOT indicator increases ahead of major historical trigger events, correctly identifies trigger sources, and helps to improve forward looking model estimates of downside risks to the economy. The results indicate that the use of AI-based signal extraction from text can be a promising avenue to improve the monitoring of financial stability risks. Link to the Working Paper here Artificial Intelligence and Open Finance On 16 July 2026, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published OECD Artificial Intelligence Paper No. 61 “Artificial intelligence and open finance – Synergies, trade-offs and policy implications.” In the paper, the OECD examines the interplay between AI innovation and data-sharing environments, highlighting mutually reinforcing benefits alongside increased complexity, trade- offs and amplified risks. It also explores a forward-looking theoretical scenario of agentic AI in an environment of growing data-sharing. The paper aims to support the responsible and scalable deployment of AI innovation within Open Finance ecosystems. Link to Paper here Dutch Supervisory Authorities Urge Faster Action on Digital Autonomy On 10 July 2026, the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) published a report titled “Towards digital autonomy” written in co-operation with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure (RDI) (collectively, the supervisory authorities).