ESMA and NCAs to assess disclosures and sustainability risks in the investment fund sector
July 6, 2023--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, is today launching a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) with National Competent Authorities (NCAs) on sustainability-related disclosures and the integration of sustainability risks.
The goal is to assess the compliance of supervised asset managers with the relevant provisions in the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the Taxonomy Regulation and relevant implementing measures, including the relevant provision in the UCITS and AIFMD implementing acts on the integration of sustainability risks.
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Source: ESMA
ESMA publishes latest edition of its newsletter
July 6, 2023--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its latest edition of the Spotlight on Markets Newsletter.
Your one-stop-shop in the world of EU financial markets focused in June on important topics such as the launch of the ESMA Data Strategy 2023-2028, the release of the 2022 Annual Report and our first corporate video. With the Data Strategy, we want to contribute to reducing the compliance burden for companies and facilitate data reporting by means of increased standardisation and the use of modern IT solutions across the reporting process and the entire data lifecycle.
ESMA's key achievements mentioned in the Annual Report included developing its new Strategy which will guide its work over the years 2023-2028. ESMA also delivered extensive work throughout the year to respond to the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: ESMA
Can Europe make its space launch industry competitive?
July 5, 2023--Europe is falling behind in the global commercial space launch sector; a new programme may not be enough to fix the shortcomings
Pressure on the European space sector from foreign competitors, primarily the United States and China, has led to a rethinking of Europe's space policy.
As part of this, the European Space Agency (ESA), with a membership made up largely of European Union countries, announced in May 2023 the Commercial Cargo Transportation Initiative (CCTI), a call for European companies to develop commercially-sound cargo transportation systems.
European satellite infrastructure, Europe's presence in the International Space Station (ISS) and all exploration and scientific missions depend on transportation into orbit, on which ESA will spend 12.6 percent of its €7 billion budget in 2023.
The hope is that CCTI will stimulate companies to do something Europe has not yet done: develop its own cheap, reusable rocket. In doing this, CCTI is a bid to replicate in Europe the success of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme, which ran from 2006 to 2013 and succeeded in substantially lowering the costs for NASA of getting into orbit by engaging private companies in the development and operation of space transportation systems.
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Source: bruegel.org
Research: UK official holdings of international reserves: June 2023
July 5, 2023--This release details movements in the international reserves of gold and assets held by the UK Government.
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Source: gov.uk
New Equity ETF by HANetf on Xetra: Access to the global defence sector for NATO and associated countries
July 4, 2023--Since Tuesday a new Exchange Traded Fund by HANetf is tradable on Xetra and via the Börse Frankfurt trading venue.
The Future of Defence UCITS ETF offers investors direct access to a globally diversified portfolio of 41 companies based in a NATO or an associated country and generating their revenues in the defence sector.
All companies must generate at least 50 per cent of their revenues through the development and production of military planes, military equipment or cyber security contracs with a Nato member or an associated state.
The weighting of each asset is limited to 5 per cent for each company and 50 per cent for each country.
Name: Name
ISIN: IE000OJ5TQP4
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Source: Xetra
ESMA publishes second overview of national rules governing fund marketing
July 3, 2023--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU securities markets regulator and supervisor, has submitted to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission its second report on national rules governing the marketing of investment funds under the Regulation on cross-border distribution of funds.
The key findings are the following:
The transposition of the Directive on cross-border distribution of funds and the entry into force of the ESMA Guidelines on funds' marketing communications helped reach a greater level of harmonisation in areas where national divergences existed (identified in the first ESMA Report submitted in 2021).
Despite the powers NCAs have under the Regulation, it is apparent that only a limited number of NCAs carried out any ex-ante verifications of marketing communications, while an increasing number of NCAs reported carrying out ex-post verifications.
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Source: ESMA
Pressure from ETFs forecast to lead to more active fund fee cuts
July 1, 2030--Average charges for European passive funds have declined faster than their active counterparts
Active funds in Europe are forecast to further lower their fees as they try to "secure their future" in the face of rising demand for low-cost passive funds, experts say.
Fabrizio Zumbo, director of European asset and wealth management research at Cerulli, said active funds had been suffering "downward pressure" on costs as they struggled to outperform their benchmarks.
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Source: ft.com
New ETNs from Leverage Shares on Xetra: access to equity companies, US government bonds and tech stocks with vola hedge component
June 30, 2023--Since Friday, 14 exchange-traded notes issued by Leverage Shares are tradable on Xetra and via the trading venue B*ouml;rse Frankfurt.
Leverage Shares complements its existing range of collateralised exchange traded notes (ETNs) and offers investors access to the long and short performance of equity companies, US government bonds as well as an active investment strategy of tech stocks in combination with a hedge component with up to a 5x leverage factor.
The LS FAANG+ ETP tracks the performance of a basket of ten equally weighted, highly liquid, globally known US technology companies. These include, for example, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Netflix and Tesla. Access to the Indian equity market in the triple long and short variant is offered by the Leverage Shares India ETP.
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Source: Xetra
ESMA finds adequate setup of measures to reduce volatility in trading of energy derivatives
June 30, 2023--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its Report on the implementation and functioning of the Intra-day Volatility Management Mechanism (IVM).
Following an assessment of the IVMs introduced by trading venues and identification of differences in the approaches taken in their implementation and calibration, ESMA finds that they have been adequately set up. ESMA however also highlights some practical challenges.
The IVM aims at limiting extreme volatility of prices in energy derivatives markets within one day. ESMA finds them adequately calibrated, with the caveat of the assessment having been done in a period with no evidence of protracted volatility episodes affecting energy commodity derivatives trading.
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Source: ESMA
Euro zone inflation falls again in June as energy prices tumble
June 30, 2023-- Inflation in the euro zone extended its decline in June as the cost of fuel tumbled, more than offsetting an acceleration in prices for services, a preliminary reading showed on Friday.
The data, pointing to only the smallest drop in underlying inflation, was unlikely to sway the European Central Bank, which has pencilled in a ninth consecutive rate hike for July and is eyeing one in September too.
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Source: reuters.com