On 7 July 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on sanctions and measures imposed under MiFID II in 2022.
ESMA is required to publish an annual report with aggregated information on all sanctions and measures imposed by Member State competent authorities (NCAs) pursuant to Article 71(4) MiFID II. ESMA is also obliged to include in the report data on criminal sanctions imposed under MiFID II.
Highlights in the report include:
- NCA’s activity on imposing sanctions and measures under MiFID II has decreased compared to the previous year.
- Both the number of Member States, where sanctions and measures were applied and the total amount of imposed administrative fines have increased in 2022 compared to 2021.
- This increased total amount of imposed fines should be read cautiously, since this value includes some rather high fines imposed only by a few NCAs.
- The observed decrease of the total number of NCAs’ imposed sanctions and measures may be attributed to, inter alia, an enhanced common understanding of enforcement and sanctioning powers amongst NCAs, assisted by ESMA’s and NCAs’ methodological work to harmonise the concept of sanctions and measures.
- Overall, in 25 EU/EEA Member States, NCAs imposed a total of 281 sanctions and measures in 2022. Those applied sanctions and measures were of an aggregated value of EUR 21,034,117.
The information reported to ESMA and included in the report will, inter alia, inform ESMA’s ongoing work aimed at fostering supervisory convergence in the application of the MiFID II framework and contribute to ESMA’s goal to develop an EU outcome-focused supervisory and enforcement culture.
An annual report will continue to be issued for the future reporting periods.
