Steven Maijoor, chair of the European Securities & Markets Authority (ESMA), has given a brief “update and next steps” report to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, about ESMA’s work on the AIFMD 3rd-country passport.
After reviewing the relevant history, which is summarised in our earlier blogs (here, here and here), Maijoor described the 3 areas ESMA will be working on in the short-term – it will:
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finish assessing Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and reach a view about whether to extend the passport to those countries, or not;
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start assessing a 3rd group of non-EU countries, when there’s more clarity about next steps from the European co-legislators; and
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establish the “extensive framework foreseen by the co-legilsators in case the passport is indeed extended to one or more non-EU countries“, a step that will include preparing for ESMA’s “significant role … in the functioning of the passport system and the strengthened supervisory co-operation that will be crucial to its success“
It’s not yet clear what the ECON Committee made of this. More to follow…
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