On October 7, 2015, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its 2016 work program.

The key priorities for 2016 will be:

• Supervisory Convergence: ESMA’s focus will shift increasingly from rulemaking to implementation, and enforcement of common EU rules will be a core focus;
• The Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFID II and MiFIR): this will continue to dominate ESMA’s work in 2016 but focus will increasingly be on implementation guidelines and Q&A; and
• Data collection and management: ESMA will continue to develop systems to support activities on supervision, risk monitoring and the single rulebook, as well as working to meet the legal requirements for data collection and reporting set out in MiDIF II and MiFIR.