ESMA has published its 2025 Annual Report, setting out a year of work focused on tighter supervision, regulatory simplification, and support for innovation across EU capital markets. The report frames much of that activity around implementing the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, progress on the move to a T+1 settlement cycle, and the selection of consolidated tape providers.
For retail forex and CFD traders, the relevance lies in ESMA's stated direction of travel rather than a single new rule. A regulator emphasising stronger, more convergent supervision alongside its national counterparts signals continued scrutiny of how investment products are sold and how cross-border firms are overseen, which is the environment in which CFD product-intervention measures and leverage limits continue to be enforced.
The practical takeaway is unchanged: readers should favour brokers holding authorisation from an EU national competent authority operating under ESMA's coordination, rather than entities marketing into the bloc from outside it. ESMA also flags simplification and burden reduction as priorities, which may shape future reporting and disclosure obligations for authorised firms.