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Upcoming changes to the Euribor Panel
Upcoming changes to the Euribor Panel
BenchmarksThe European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, is issuing a statement on the upcoming changes to the Euribor panel, in its capacity as supervisor of the European Money Market Institute (EMMI), administrator of Euribor.
This statement concerns the announcement by EMMI that Cecabank, based in Spain, will withdraw from the Euribor panel. The withdrawal will take effect on 30 September 2026, which will be the bank’s final day contributing input data to the benchmark determination.
ESMA and National Competent Authorities within the Euribor College of Supervisors have assessed the impact of the departure of Cecabank on Euribor representativeness of the Euro unsecured money market. ESMA and the College concluded that Cecabank’s departure does not pose a risk to the representativeness of Euribor.
This departure follows a period of Euribor panel enlargement with the addition of four new panel banks since 2022, including KBC Bank’s recent joining of the panel in May 2026. ESMA continues to encourage credit institutions active in the Euro unsecured money market to consider joining the Euribor panel, actively supporting the robustness and representativeness of this critical benchmark within the EU financial system.
Further information:
Tayfun Yilmaz
Communications Officer
press@esma.europa.euESMA sets new supervisory priority on digital innovation from 2027
ESMA sets new supervisory priority on digital innovation from 2027
Digital Finance and InnovationSupervisory convergenceThe European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, will launch a new Union Strategic Supervisory Priority (USSP) to help embrace innovation while protecting investors and maintaining strong safeguards.
The digital innovation USSP aims to ensure supervisors have the expertise and capacity to oversee the use of new technologies. In collaboration with National Competent Authorities, our initial focus will be on how supervised entities use artificial intelligence and tokenisation. We will remain flexible to address future technological developments as they emerge.
The new priority will run alongside the USSP on cyber and operational resilience, which has been in place since 2025. Going forward, we will continue our efforts and coordination to address the challenges ahead, including those emerging from advanced models such as frontier AI.
This year, ESMA is also concluding the USSP on ESG disclosures, following its launch in 2023. Overall, we have made strong progress in improving ESG disclosures and helping investors better understand sustainability information and receive quality advice. While this marks a significant milestone, ESG remains a long-term journey.
▸ Factsheet presenting key information on ongoing and future USSPs
Background
USSPs are ESMA’s convergence tools that address high-risk areas of strategic importance across the EU. They help direct supervisory resources towards the risks that matter most for investor protection, financial stability and the orderly functioning of EU financial markets.
Further information:
Tayfun Yilmaz
Communications Officer
press@esma.europa.eu23/09/2026 USSPsUnion strategic supervisory priorities (USSPs) - factsheet ESAs call for vigilance over external dependencies, cyber threats and private credit risks
ESAs call for vigilance over external dependencies, cyber threats and private credit risks
Joint CommitteeRisk monitoringThe European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) have identified external dependencies, emerging technologies and private credit as key vulnerabilities for the EU financial system in their Autumn 2026 risk update.
The ESAs warn that the sector's reliance on non-EU providers and infrastructures could amplify the impact of geopolitical shocks and operational disruptions. Dependence on ICT service providers outside the European Economic Area remains a particular concern, alongside growing cyber risks linked to increasingly capable AI models.
The findings also highlight vulnerabilities related to private credit. Although the sector remains relatively small in the EU, its rapid growth, limited transparency and increasing links with the wider financial system could create risks during periods of stress.
Despite these challenges, the EU financial system has remained resilient. Investment funds, insurers and banks continue to show strong fundamentals, although geopolitical tensions, cyber threats, natural catastrophes and technological developments continue to shape the outlook.
The ESAs call on supervisors and market participants to strengthen their preparedness and continue closely monitoring risks stemming from external dependencies, private credit and emerging technologies.
Background
The key findings of Autumn 2026 Joint Committee update on Risks and Vulnerabilities were presented at the meeting of the Financial Stability Table of the EU’s Economic and Financial Committee (FST-EFC) on 10 September 2026 as input from the ESAs.
Findings in detail:
The EU financial system remains resilient
Financial markets have remained resilient despite a volatile environment marked by geopolitical tensions, fluctuations in energy prices and continued crypto-asset volatility. EU equities reached record highs even amid the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Bond yields rose but spread widening was limited. Resilience was also evident across the wider financial system. EU investment funds remained resilient throughout the period of volatility. Fundamentals in the insurance and pension sector stayed strong, and capital and funding positions strengthened, however, more frequent natural catastrophes could widen protection gaps, reinforcing the need for stronger action on adaptation. European banks continued to operate from a position of strength, with strong profitability and high capital ratios supported by organic capital creation. Bank asset quality is also resilient with low levels of Non-Performing Loans, but with expectations of asset quality deterioration in certain portfolios, particularly Commercial Real Estate and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Nevertheless, risks remain. Geopolitical developments, energy prices, and rapid technological advances including AI continue to shape the risk outlook, while operational risks are increasing with cyber and fraud risk remaining the main sources of concern.
Role of non-EU exposures and infrastructure dependencies
The ESAs highlight the EU financial sector’s dependencies on non-EU countries across the financial system. Investment funds have substantial exposures to the US, particularly equity UCITS and alternative investment funds, while bond funds are more geographically diversified.
In the insurance sector, global interconnectedness is contained overall and is primarily asset- and reinsurance-driven. While these links bring diversification benefits, they also increase market, counterparty, and concentration risks for the sector.
In the banking sector, heightened geopolitical tensions are increasing uncertainties. Although direct exposures to the regions affected by geopolitical tensions remain limited, indirect exposure and second-round effects could have wider implications for borrowers and funding conditions. Adverse developments from geopolitical tensions could lead to deteriorating asset quality and subdued credit demand, which are not least reflected in banks’ impairment overlays. Banks also face funding gaps in some non-EU currencies, mainly because of household and non-financial corporation deposits and mostly in USD, GBP and CHF. There is ongoing strong reliance on non-EU ICT service providers and payment systems. Dependence on non-EU service providers also remains visible in financial infrastructures, with clearing, repo and credit ratings markets largely intermediated by non-EU entities.
External dependencies present risks, particularly linked to cyber and AI
This reliance on non-EU counterparties increases dependencies on other regulatory regimes and can increase vulnerabilities to geopolitical events outside the EU. It heightens cyber risks, particularly given the concentration of dependence on non-EEA ICT providers. In the insurance sector, exposure also arises through cyber-insurance underwriting. In a context of severe geopolitical instability, added frequency and severity of orchestrated AI-enabled cyberattacks could increase claims and accumulation risks for insurers, though exclusion clauses could limit the impacts on the sector.
The rapid development of advanced AI systems could make cyberattacks more powerful and harder to contain, allowing malicious actors to identify and exploit vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed. Quantum computing, another rapidly developing technological area, could soon transform the financial sector in key areas by optimising financial processes, fraud and compliance monitoring, as well as pricing. While it promises significant benefits, it could also create major risks, through undermining cryptography systems widely used to secure communications, transactions, databases, and blockchains. Risks posed could also materialise faster than any commercially viable application.
Private credit exposures have grown and present risks
Private credit markets continue to expand rapidly as a source of financing globally, although the EU market remains relatively small, with limited aggregate exposures among banks and insurers. Nonetheless, the sector presents vulnerabilities linked to increasing complexity, limited transparency, and interlinkages across the financial system. These include infrequent and potentially inaccurate loan valuations, high credit risk, uncertainty about leverage across the value chain, and data gaps affecting both market participants and regulators. Risks may also arise from EU entity exposures to the larger US private credit market. Liquidity mismatches in private credit funds could amplify redemption pressures and generate spillovers to banks through funding and common exposures. Banks could also face credit risks through shared borrowers and financing commitments to private credit vehicles.
Supervisors and market participants should stay ready and responsive
Given the ongoing geopolitical risks, the Joint Committee of the ESAs calls on supervisors and market participants to strengthen resilience through crisis preparedness, resolution coordination, and more effective and adaptable regulation. It also calls for proactive monitoring and management of risks related to external dependencies, private credit, and AI. This includes managing exposures to non-EEA entities, particularly those linked to private credit, monitoring dependencies on non-EU/EEA service providers, and strengthening preparedness for risks arising from the rapid development of AI and quantum computing.
Further information:
Tayfun Yilmaz
Communications Officer
press@esma.europa.euOngoing geopolitical and economic vulnerabilities masked by strong investor optimism
Ongoing geopolitical and economic vulnerabilities masked by strong investor optimism
Press ReleasesRisk monitoringThe European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, published today its second risk monitoring report of 2026, setting out the main risks and vulnerabilities in EU financial markets.
ESMA finds that, while markets have remained resilient, stretched technology valuations and heightened geopolitical tensions are testing this resilience, in a climate of persistent inflation and weaker economic growth. Despite heightened market volatility and event-driven uncertainty, strong performance in technology and AI-related sectors has been helping to sustain fast recovery of investor optimism and financial markets valuations.
This resilience should not be mistaken as an absence of vulnerabilities. The disconnect between deteriorating macro-financial conditions and upbeat market valuation increases the risk of sudden market corrections, should economic risks materialise or investor sentiment shift abruptly. At the same time, rapidly emerging threats to market infrastructures and key market players, such as those linked to frontier AI, should not be overlooked.
Verena Ross, ESMA’s Chair, said:
“Investor optimism continues to support elevated valuations despite rising geopolitical tensions and a weakening economic outlook. The wider this gap becomes, the greater the risk of an abrupt market correction.
Retail and institutional investors should remain vigilant and retain resilience, preparing to be able to withstand sharp market corrections.”
Beyond these risk drivers, ESMA’s report sets out market developments and conditions across key segments of EU financial markets during the first half of 2026. It also provides in-depth analysis on selected topics, including UCITS market fragmentation, technology IPO trends in the US and prediction markets.
Market developments
Securities markets and crypto-assets
Equity markets fell sharply following the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, but prices have since rebounded to, or above, pre-conflict levels. Nevertheless, elevated valuations amid a weaker macro-financial and geopolitical outlook have increased the risk of abrupt corrections. In bond markets, concerns have emerged over funding conditions and the safe-haven role of bonds, with sovereign yields rising and spreads widening, while volatility remains elevated despite largely stable EU credit quality indicators. Beyond listed markets, risks also warrant close monitoring in less transparent and increasingly interconnected segments, both in private credit exposures to the US market, and in the growing linkage between increasingly vulnerable crypto-asset markets and the broader financial system.
Infrastructures and services
Key market infrastructures have continued to function well, even during recent market stress, where clearing houses, known as central counterparties (CCPs), handled volatile energy trading without disruption. Settlement systems, however, saw a short-lived rise in failed transactions across asset classes in early April. Cyber risks are increasingly important as frontier AI developments are shifting the operational risk landscape.
Asset management
Fund flows and performance remained positive despite the volatile market environment. While interest rate and credit risks are emerging as growing concerns, the available risk indicators remain broadly stable at this time. Valuation risk continues to be an issue across most fund categories.
Consumers
Digital platforms have made it easier for retail investors to access markets, and this is shaping behaviours in different ways. On the one hand, many investors continue to favour passive products for long-term investing, while the same platforms can also facilitate short term or speculative trading. Overall, exposure to social media content and gamification features on digital platforms may encourage uniformed or impulsive investment decisions.
Structural developments
Market-based finance
IPO activity remained limited in the EU, and follow-on issuance was below historical averages. At the same time, corporate bond issuance stayed strong, although the pace of short-term debt issuance moderated and refinancing risks increased.
Sustainable finance
Global climate policy tensions and energy security concerns continued to weigh on ESG sentiment. Nevertheless, ESG funds saw mixed developments overall, with renewable energy and transition-focused funds attracting inflows. The EU ESG bond market remained resilient, supported by the growing use of proceeds linked to renewable energy projects.
Financial innovation
Tokenisation of equities remains at an early stage, but adoption momentum is increasing. In decentralised finance, recent exploits have renewed concerns about interconnectedness and potential spillovers. Investment in artificial intelligence continues to expand, reflected in the growing number of AI-focused funds, particularly those targeting AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, quantum computing has attracted significant investor interest, with both global and EU startup funding reaching record levels in 2025.
Further information:
Ana Dilaverakis
Communications Officer
press@esma.europa.eu10/09/2026 ESMA50-1949966494-4282Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities (TRV) Report, No. 2, 2026 10/09/2026 ESMA50-1949966494-4299Statistical Annex to the Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities (TRV) Report, No. 2, 2026 10/09/2026 ESMA71-545613100-2999Ongoing geopolitical and economic vulnerabilities masked by strong investor optimism - Press release ESMA consults on disclosure requirements and updates guidelines and Q&As under the Prospectus Regulation
ESMA consults on disclosure requirements and updates guidelines and Q&As under the Prospectus Regulation
Guidelines and Technical standardsProspectusSimplification and Burden ReductionThe European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published a package of materials under the Prospectus Regulation to reflect changes introduced by the Listing Act. The measures aim to promote supervisory convergence and contribute to ESMA’s simplification and burden-reduction efforts.
The package includes:
- a Consultation Paper on the update of the Guidelines on disclosure requirements;
- updated Q&As;
- a Final Report on Guidelines for supplements that introduce new securities to a base prospectus (“product supplements”); and
- a Final Report on regulatory technical standards (RTS) on key financial information to be included in prospectus summaries.
Consultation on disclosure Guidelines
The Consultation Paper seeks stakeholder feedback on updates intended to help issuers and their advisers better understand expected disclosure under the revised Prospectus Regulation. They also simplify existing guidance by reducing the parts that are no longer necessary.
Stakeholders are invited to respond to the consultation by 9 November 2026. ESMA expects to publish the Final Report and updated Guidelines in Q2 2027.
Q&As
The revised Q&As adjust legal references reflecting the amended Prospectus Regulation, introduce further clarifications where needed, and remove obsolete content. To help stakeholders navigate the changes, ESMA has prepared an overview explaining the key changes and the reasons behind them.
Guidelines on product supplements
The Guidelines establish a common approach for assessing whether a supplement introduces new securities to a base prospectus. They provide national competent authorities with a methodological and easy-to-apply framework and give market participants greater certainty when submitting supplements.
The Guidelines will apply when the translations into all official EU languages become available.
RTS on key financial information
The RTS update the requirements for financial information in prospectus following Listing Act reforms. They align summary disclosure requirements with the revised disclosure framework and support more proportionate information requirements.
ESMA has submitted the Final Report to the European Commission for a decision on whether to adopt the RTS updating Commission Delegated Regulation 2019/979.
Further information:
Iris Hude
Communications Officer
press@esma.europa.eu09/09/2026 ESMA32-753890202-3085Consultation Paper on the update to the Guidelines on disclosure requirements under the Prospectus Regulation 09/09/2026 ESMA32-753890202-3034Final Report on the Guidelines on supplements which introduce new securities to a base prospectus 09/09/2026 ESMA32-753890202-3065Final Report on the update to the RTS concerning key financial information in the summary of a prospectus 09/09/2026 Prospectus packageOverview of changes made to the Prospectus Q&As
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