Financial Markets and Funds Partner Nathaniel Lalone recently commented on the European Commission's (EC) legislative proposal to deepen EU capital markets by removing regulatory barriers in trading, post-trading and asset management. The proposal would bring the EC into alignment with the European Securities and Markets Authority's (ESMA) 2024 recommendations to reduce fragmentation, streamline regulatory requirements, harmonize supervision, and enhance competitiveness, including through EU-level oversight of certain cross-border infrastructures and cryptoasset service providers.
"If done correctly, the transfer of supervisory powers to the European level could help to reduce regulatory overlaps and achieve greater efficiencies, in particular for market infrastructures that in effect service the EU as a whole. But centralization for its own sake, without a corresponding transfer of expertise and resources, could in fact lead to additional duplication of efforts, in particular in the event that national regulators retain a significant role in the oversight process. The question then is whether the EU intends a radical break from its existing practice or is content to pursue a "muddle along" strategy that ultimately leaves things much as they are."
"EU Commission’s market integration proposal sets up ESMA as pan-European supervisor," Finadium, December 4, 2025
"The European Commission’s proposed financial-market reforms designed to simplify rules for trading, post-trading, and asset management," Edward Fennell's Legal Diary, December 5, 2025