ESMA publishes 2027 work programme

On 28 September 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its work programme for 2027. The work programme sets out ESMA’s strategic priorities and provides a list of the key workstreams for the upcoming year.

The work programme is set around five strategic priorities and thematic drivers, which were developed as part of its multi-annual strategy for 2023 to 2028. These are:

• Effective markets and financial stability;
• Effective supervision;
• Retail investor protection;
• Sustainable Finance; and
• Effective Use of Data and Technological Innovation.

In addition to the above strategic priorities and thematic drivers, ESMA will focus on simplification and burden reduction work. Following work undertaken in 2025 and 2026, ESMA aims to deliver concrete simplification and burden reduction outcomes in 2027. ESMA has identified a number of flagship projects to deliver on this goal, within the context of transaction reporting, funds reporting, the investor journey, and risk-based supervision. ESMA will advance towards integrated “report once” frameworks, establish harmonised and centralized reporting solutions for the funds sector, streamline retail investor interactions with financial markets, and enhance supervisory effectiveness through more targeted, risk-based approaches. Concretely, the work ESMA proposes to undertake in this field are:

• Transaction reporting: Continued work towards an integrated and simplified reporting system (“report once” approach) for reporting under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR), and the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR). This work follows the July 2026 report on a comprehensive approach for the simplification of financial transaction reporting.
• Funds reporting: Development of Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) under the Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) for a harmonised, single reporting framework and start of development of a dedicated information technology (IT) project for funds reporting. This follows ESMA’s May 2026 report on integrated reporting of funds’ data.
• Risk-based supervision: Ongoing implementation with the aim of improving supervisory efficiency and reducing unnecessary burden and activities, while preserving supervisory soundness.
• Markets and infrastructure: Targeted reviews of RTS and ITS under a number of frameworks, including the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and MiFIR, EMIR 3, and Central Counterparty Recovery and Resolution Regulation (CCP RRR).
• Investors and issuers: Simplification of prospectus rules, alignment of benchmark rules, and follow-up work on sustainability disclosures for investment management (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)/Taxonomy Regulation).
• Fund management and retail investment: Development of simplified Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Key Information Document (KID) rules.
• Cross-cutting work: Further supervisory convergence efforts and continued embedding of simplification principles.

The above simplification-related initiatives will be part of ESMA’s overall approach to developing RTS, ITS and guidelines.

The remainder of the work programme provides an overview of ESMA’s objectives and intended results. In terms of concrete work products ESMA intends to deliver in 2027, the list includes the following:

1. Investment management
   • AIFMD/UCITSD technical standards revision for a single integrated funds reporting framework (Q2).
   • Review of RTS to streamline PRIIPs KID (Q4).
   • Development of RTS on value for money framework and undue costs (Q4).
2. Investment services
   • Review of guidelines on Investment Firms Regulation (IFR) and Investment Firms Directive (IFD) (in cooperation with the European Banking Authority (EBA)) (ongoing).
   • Supervisory convergence discussion on event contracts in the prediction markets (ongoing).
   • Development of RTS and ITS under the RIS framework (Q4).
   • Market Report on crowdfunding (Q4).
   • Market Report on Costs and Performance of retail investment products (Q4).
3. Issuer Disclosure
   • Public roll-out of the first phase of the European Single Access Point (Transparency Directive and Prospectus Regulation) (Q3).
   • Update to Guidelines on Prospectus Disclosure within the context of the Listing Act (Q2).
4. Market transparency infrastructures
   • Authorisation of the first consolidated tape provider for derivatives (Q2).
   • Aligning operational requirements and thresholds in joint RTS linked to SFTR with the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) (timeline to be confirmed).
5. Central Counterparties
   • Final report on the effectiveness of the EMIR active account requirement (Q3).
   • Draft RTS and Guidelines on the context of resolution plans (Q4).
   • Draft RTS and Guidelines on the functioning of resolution colleges (Q4).
6. Trading
   • Bi-annual report on the impact of the MiFIR volume cap (Q3).
   • Report on the use of deferrals for non-equity instruments (Q4).
   • Report on derivatives activity (Q4).
   • Market report on carbon markets (Q4).
7. Crypto-assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT)
   1. Annual report on market developments under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) (Q4).
   2. Annual report on DLT Pilot exemptions, conditions and compensatory or corrective measures (Q4).