The European Union is preparing a year-end push to expand pension savings and tighten oversight of markets, including crypto. The plan would grant more power to the EU watchdog European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Financial Services Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque said during her speech at the Eurofi Forum in Copenhagen.
“We are looking at possible centralized supervision of certain market infrastructures, such as central counterparties, central securities depositories, and trading venues,” Albuquerque stated. She also highlighted the potential benefit of greater centralized oversight for fast-evolving areas “where supervisory capacities need to be up to the task, such as Crypto Asset Service Providers.” [1]
Dubbed the EU’s Savings and Investments Union, the initiative is presented as a long-term project to mobilize household wealth and enhance Europe’s financial autonomy by integrating fragmented markets and expanding retail participation.
The plan reflects some recommendations of the so-called Draghi report. [2] Former ECB president Mario Draghi emphasized the need for stronger integration of the EU capital market. According to Draghi, a single capital market could boost investments in start-ups and venture capital as key drivers of productivity growth.
Albuquerque dismissed concerns that transferring powers to ESMA would weaken national financial market authorities in EU member states. “Let me be clear, transferring supervision to ESMA would not sideline national authorities; on the contrary, it would imply efficient cooperation with national authorities, in the interest of ensuring better oversight and more informed decision-making,” she said.
She added that the EU can draw on various existing models of centralized supervision. “Like any great reform, building a true Savings and Investments Union requires collective conviction and buy-in from every corner of the Union,” Albuquerque noted.
The initiative comes just days after France, Italy, and Austria warned of possibly blocking licenses obtained by crypto traders and providers in other EU countries. In a joint paper, the three national watchdogs said the current system had revealed “major differences” in how each country supervises companies, allowing businesses to benefit from regulatory divergence. [3]
According to Bloomberg, an ESMA spokesperson confirmed the regulator is “working intensely on ensuring convergence in the authorization and supervision of EU crypto providers.” ESMA had already stated in a paper last year that it was “a good time to reconsider in which areas it might make sense to have more EU-level supervision.”
Under the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) directive, which took effect for crypto asset service providers in December 2024, companies authorized in one EU member state can use this license as a “passport” to operate across the entire 27-nation bloc.
Sources:
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_25_2134
[2] https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/draghi-report_en