On 3 July 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on marketing requirements and marketing communications under the Regulation on cross-border distribution of funds (the Regulation).

This is the second report, produced by ESMA, which covers Member States’ national rules governing the marketing of investment funds under the Regulation. ESMA submitted its first report to the co-legislators on 30 June 2021. ESMA is mandated to publish these reports under Article 8(2) of the Regulation.

In this report, ESMA provides an overview of the marketing requirements across Member States and analyses the effects of national laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing the marketing communications for investment funds.

The report makes the following key findings:

  • 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.
  • Despite the powers national competent authorities (NCAs) have under the Regulation, it is apparent that only a limited number of NCAs carry out any ex-ante verifications of marketing communications, while an increasing number of NCAs reported carrying out ex-post verifications.

ESMA will submit a new reiteration of the report to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission in two years.