The Age of ESMA - Governing EU Financial Markets

Since its establishment in 2011, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has become a pivotal actor in EU financial market regulation and supervision. Its burgeoning influence extends from the rule-making process to supervisory convergence/coordination to direct supervision. Reflecting the now critical importance of ESMA to how the EU regulates and supervises financial markets, and with ESMA at an inflection point in its evolution, particularly in light of the Commission's 2017 proposals to reform ESMA and the UK's withdrawal from the EU, The Age of ESMA maps, contextualises, and examines ESMA's role and the implications for EU financial market governance.

1. Introducing ESMA
I. Introduction: Examining ESMA through an Institutional Lens
II. Characterising ESMA: ESMA's Setting and its Role
III. Contextualising ESMA
IV. Technocratic Influence, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy
V. Roadmap
2. ESMA's Governance
I. Assessing ESMA and its Governance Arrangements
II. Examining ESMA's Governance Arrangements
III. Contextualising ESMA's Governance Arrangements: Influence, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy
IV. ESMA's Institutional Design
V. ESMA's External Governance Arrangements
VI. ESMA's Funding Arrangements
VII. Conclusion
3. ESMA and Regulatory Governance
I. Assessing ESMA and the Regulatory Governance Setting
II. Examining ESMA's Role in Regulatory Governance
III. Contextualising ESMA's Role: Influence, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy
IV. Building the Single Rule-book: ESMA as Architect of EU Administrative Financial Market Regulation
V. Building the Soft Law Rule-book: ESMA as the Designer and Custodian of EU Financial Market Soft Law
VI. The Legislative Process: Shaping Regulatory Governance from the Bottom Up
VII. Conclusion
4. ESMA and Supervisory Convergence
I. Assessing ESMA and the Supervisory Convergence Setting
II. Examining ESMA's Role in Supervisory Convergence
III. Contextualising ESMA's Role: Influence, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy
IV. Supervisory Convergence in Practice
V. Conclusion
5. ESMA and Direct Supervision/Market Intervention
I. Assessing ESMA and the Direct Supervision/Market Intervention Setting
II. Examining ESMA's Role as a Direct Supervisor
III. Contextualising ESMA's Role: Influence, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy
IV. Direct Supervision in Practice: Rating Agencies and Trade Repositories
V. NCA-Oriented Supervision: Breach of EU Law, Binding Mediation, and Emergency Conditions
VI. Exceptional Intervention: Short Selling, Product/Services Intervention, and Intervention in the Commodity
Derivatives Market
VII. Th e 2017/2018 Reform Waypoint (1): CCP Supervision and the 'European Supervisory Mechanism'
VIII. Th e 2017/2018 Reform Waypoint (2): Th e 2017 ESA Proposal
IX. And the Direction of Travel Continues: Th e 2018 Crowdfunding Proposal
X. Conclusion
6. ESMA as a Network Actor
I. ESMA as a Network Actor
II. ESMA and the EU Financial Governance Network
III. ESMA and the International Financial Market Governance Network
IV. Conclusion