ESMA meaning

This timeline outlines key developments linked to the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (EU) 2011/61/EU (EU AIFMD) from January 2024 onwards. For earlier developments, see Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD)—timeline [Archived]. For further guidance on EU AIFMD, see Practice Note: EU AIFMD—essentials. For guidance on the UK Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) regime, see Practice Note: UK regulation of alternative investment fund managers—essentials. 2026 13 March 2026 — ESMA — Guidelines on Liquidity Management Tools (LMTs) for UCITS and open-ended AIFs. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published guidelines on LMTs for UCITS and open-ended AIFs...

Checklist This Checklist presents a consolidated, structured timeline for the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA Regulation), which took effect on 29 June 2023. It covers the staggered roll-out of the Level 1 regime (Phase 1) and the progression of Level 2 and 3 measures. The Checklist sets out the principal legislative milestones and commencement dates before and after the Phase 1 implementation of the MiCA Regulation, together with the continuing development of regulatory technical standards (RTS), implementing technical standards (ITS), guidelines, Q&As and other supervisory actions issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the European Banking Authority (EBA) and other relevant authorities. For material centred on how EU authorities regulate cryptoassets, see Practice Note: EU regulation of cryptoassets. To explore the stance adopted by supranational bodies on the regulation of cryptoassets, see Practice Note: Supranational approach to the regulation of cryptoassets. 2026 2 March 2026 - European Banking Authority: EBA issues a No Action letter on the interaction between...

This timeline summarises significant updates linked to Regulation (EU) 909/2014 (the EU Central Securities Depositories Regulation) from January 2024 onwards. For prior milestones, see Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR)-timeline [Archived]. 2025 3 December 2025 - ESMA - Consultation Paper Draft Regulatory Technical Standard revising Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/390 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 on prudential requirements for central securities depositories and designated credit institutions providing banking‑type ancillary service. The EBA seeks views on proposed amendments to the RTS for CSDs and designated credit institutions delivering ‘banking‑type ancillary services’. The changes mirror CSDR Refit updates, in particular enabling banking CSDs to offer such services to other CSDs. Submissions are invited by 3 March 2026. 21 November 2025 - European Commission Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2338 of 20 November 2025 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/100 laying down implementing technical standards specifying the joint decision process with regard to the application for certain prudential permissions...

In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Contamination and pollution Energy efficiency and buildings Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental information Environmental taxes, reliefs and incentives ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Air emissions and climate change Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR)-UK government publishes Business Model documentation On 27 August 2025, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) released a suite of papers on its proposed Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) Business Model and accompanying policy. The Lexis+ Energy team, working with Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law at the University of Edinburgh Law School, set out the context for the GGR Business Model; its relationship with the Power BECCS Business Model; the technologies the GGR framework intends to encompass; its legal footing and principal features; and how...

In this issue: Energy efficiency and buildings Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental enforcement and prosecutions ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Waste producer responsibility regimes Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Latest Q&A Energy efficiency and buildings The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has issued its 2025 post‑implementation review (PIR) of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1643). Using Phase 3 compliance notifications from the Environment Agency, together with unpublished interim data from Phase 3 action plans, and building on the 2020 PIR, it recommends holding off any major amendments to the ESOS Regulations until a full evaluation ends in May 2026, after which a comprehensive PIR will be completed. The research evaluates how energy audits and reporting identify and deliver energy efficiency savings across organisations. See: LNB News 14/08/2025 6...

In this issue Company, disclosures, records and registers Equity capital markets Share purchase agreement Restructuring and insolvency for corporate lawyers Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Company, disclosures, records and registers Companies House publishes guidance on ACSPs and identity verification standards Companies House has issued three pieces of guidance covering the registration of Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs), what ACSPs do, and the identity verification obligations. The first note explains how to use Companies House’s service to enrol as an ACSP (also referred to as a Companies House authorised agent). Applications open on 25 February 2025. The second clarifies the functions and responsibilities of an ACSP. The third sets out how to meet Companies House identity verification standards when confirming someone’s identity. From 25 March 2025, ACSPs will be able to notify Companies House of identity checks that have been completed. Further, from spring...

Resource Note This Resource Note signposts key commentary, analysis and materials to aid interpretation and offer practical direction on using Chapter 2 of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules (DTR 2). Where relevant, it draws on: the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Handbook FCA Knowledge Base—Procedural and Technical notes (formal guidance binding on the FCA) FCA consultation and discussion papers, policy and feedback statements, and warnings Primary Market Bulletins and other FCA publications legacy UKLA technical and procedural notes and the UKLA’s newsletter List!, where still pertinent assimilated EU legislation EU Directives and EU Regulations, where helpful to construing a provision Lexis+® UK analysis and resources Setting the scene What it covers: DTR 2 prescribes the framework for issuers to disclose and manage inside information, supporting timely and even-handed release of market-sensitive information. It also identifies specific situations permitting a delay to public disclosure of inside information, together with the safeguards required to keep such information...

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived and no longer maintained. STOP PRESS: The UK’s prospectus regime, previously derived from the EU Prospectus Regulation, has been superseded by the Public Offers and Admission to Trading Regulations 2024 (POATRs), with all detailed admission to trading requirements now contained in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) admission rules. The FCA published its final rules on 15 July 2025, which took effect on 19 January 2026. In October 2025, the FCA issued Primary Market Bulletin 58 which, among other matters, offered guidance on the timetable and approval of prospectuses (and supplementary prospectuses) and confirmed the removal of Listing Particulars as an admission document under the new framework. For more on the key aspects of the POATRs relevant to debt capital markets, see Practice Note: The UK Prospectus Regulation—essentials [Archived]—Reform of the UK prospectus regime. This Practice Note focuses on debt capital markets and summarises the required structure and contents of a prospectus prepared under the current UK prospectus regime. It covers:...

This FLASHCARD is designed to help you take in and retrieve the essential points on the recognition of UK central counterparties (CCPs) under Regulation (EU) 648/2012 (EU EMIR). How did Brexit affect the EU market for clearing services? Before Brexit, three UK CCPs—London Clearing House (LCH), LME Clear and ICE Clear Europe—held a dominant role in the EU market for derivatives clearing. As at June 2017, it was estimated that UK CCPs cleared roughly 90% of euro-denominated interest rate swaps for euro area counterparties, and 40% of their euro-denominated credit default swaps. When the implementation period ended on 31 December 2020, UK CCPs were no longer under EU supervision and became third country CCPs for the purposes of EU EMIR. Article 25(1) of EU EMIR provides that a...