The European Securities and Markets Authority has published the latest edition of its Spotlight on Markets newsletter, summarising key recent work across EU financial markets, including conclusions from its conference agenda, risk monitoring, settlement-cycle reform planning, and retail investment cost trends. The January–February edition focuses on the ESMA Conference “Shaping the future of EU capital markets”, held in Paris on 5 February 2025 with 300 in-person participants and around 3,700 online, which discussed concrete ideas to advance the Savings and Investments Union, address the funding gap and foster a culture of retail investment. It reports that ESMA has decided how to contribute to simplification and burden-reduction efforts while preserving financial stability, orderly markets and investor protection. The newsletter flags ESMA’s first risk monitoring report of 2025, which identifies key risk drivers and assesses overall risks in EU securities markets as high, cautioning market participants about potential market corrections. It also notes the launch by ESMA, the European Commission and the European Central Bank of a new governance structure to support the transition to T+1 settlement in the EU, comprising an Industry Committee chaired by Giovanni Sabatini, several technical workstreams and a Coordination Committee, alongside ESMA’s report on costs and performance of EU retail investment products showing declining costs in key products.

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