European Securities and Markets Authority

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is an independent European Union (EU) Authority that contributes to safeguarding the stability of the EU's financial system by enhancing the protection of investors and promoting stable and orderly financial markets.

Whilst ESMA is an independent Authority, it is accountable to the European Institutions including the European Parliament, where it appears before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) at their request for formal hearings, the Council of the European Union and European Commission. The Authority reports to the institutions on its activities regularly at meetings and also through its Annual Report.

Nature

Government agency

History

ESMA was founded as a direct result of the recommendations of the 2009 de Larosière report which called for the establishment of a European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) as a decentralised network. It began operations, under its Founding Regulation  on 1 January 2011, replacing the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) which was a network of NCAs which promoted consistent supervision across the EU and provided advice to the European Commission.

Regulating Functions

●assessing risks to investors, markets and financial stability; 

●completing a single rulebook for EU financial markets; 

●promoting supervisory convergence; 

●directly supervising credit rating agencies, trade repositories and securitisation repositories.

Contact

Telephone：+33 1 58 36 43 21

Fax：+33 1 58 36 43 30

E-mail：info@esma.europa.eu；Firstname.Lastname@esma.europa.eu

Address：ESMA 103 rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris, France

Postal Address：ESMA CS 60747 103 rue de Grenelle 75345 Paris Cedex 07, France

Although the ESMA does not directly supervise leveraged foreign exchange, forex brokers need to follow the corresponding laws and regulations established by the ESMA, such as MiFIR and MiFID II.

Generally speaking, ESMA-regulated broker profile will be found at the Investment Firms page on ESMA website. Try to find it and check if it will match the info from the broker website.

The detailed steps are as below:

1. Enter the Investmet Firms page to find the the list of all investment companies in the EU:

https://www.esma.europa.eu/investment-firms

Note: This list contains all relevant information received by the ESMA, and information about the services or activities authorized to the investment company.

2. Click the link address of the investment company you need to verify to check detailed information;

When you have disputes with a ESMA-regulated broker, you can proceed the following ways:

1st way: The recommended way is to contact the broker directly and discuss with them to find a solution. 

You can contact them by phone, email, or in person. If you do not know who is responsible for the complaint of a broker, you can directly call the company’s hotline or compliance department.

2nd way: If you're not satisfied with the broker's solution, you can file a complaint with a financial complaint agency of the country, or apply for an arbitration/intermediary plan for help.

According to EU regulations, you can resolve complaints through an ADR entity which will usually respond to your complaint within 90 days.

●Cross-border complaints

If the company you are complaining about is registered in an EU member state, you need to apply for the ADR plan of the country where the company is located.

●Financial Dispute Resolution Network

The financial dispute resolution network (FIN-NET) of the National Out-of-court Complaint Program of the European Economic Area Countries aims to help consumers overcome the obstacles that may arise from cross-border transactions.

Their website allows consumers to identify relevant out-of-court complaint plans in the financial service provider’s country and contact the agency directly. The FIN-NET program also makes it possible for consumers to make cross-border complaints in the language of their financial contracts or the language they usually deal with financial service providers