The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its Data Strategy for 2023-2028. Over the coming five years, ESMA will work to facilitate the use of new data-related technologies, reduce reporting compliance costs by regulated entities, enable the effective use of data at both EU and national level; and make data more broadly available to the public.
Verena Ross, ESMA’s chair, said in a statement: “We want to contribute to reducing the compliance burden for companies and facilitate data reporting by means of increased standardisation and the use of modern IT solutions across the reporting process and the entire data lifecycle.’’
“Our goal is to provide easier access to financial data, both through enhanced data sharing with authorities across the EU and at national level. Initiatives such as ESAP [European Single Access Point] will provide access to financial data to the wider market, including retail investors,” she added.
Over the next five years, ESMA intends to:
- Become an enhanced data hub – Bolster ESMA as EU securities markets data hub, focusing on improved data and information accessibility, interoperability and usability, and achieving synergies and economies of scale;
- Ensure access to data of public interest – Contribute to providing easily accessible and usable information to the market participants, including to retail investors, in machine readable formats and via user-friendly search and analytical interfaces;
- Promote data-driven supervision – Enable cutting-edge, smart and effective data-driven supervision by joint developments and use of novel technologies;
- Increase data collaboration – Achieve better data standardisation, quality and reusability, and to promote the adoption of innovative technologies;
- Produce efficient data policy output – Reduce the compliance burden for reporting entities by reducing duplicative and inconsistent requirements, optimising reporting flows, effective and efficient data sharing, and exploiting emerging technologies; and
- Facilitate systematic data use – Establish processes, methodologies and tools enabling systematic use of data for evidence-based policy development, supervision and risk assessment.
Related to data collected under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), ESMA plans to:
- Propose proof-of-concepts / projects on the use of modern technologies related to, e.g., anomaly detection on different datasets (EMIR, SFTR, etc.) or the detection of greenwashing practices, and consider using alternative funding sources such as the TSI programme or similar; and
- Provide access to anonymised or aggregated supervisory data, including EMIR, SFTR, MiFIR or CRA data