MNI BRIEF: ESMA To Supervise Big Trade Venues, Crypto

The European financial markets supervisor ESMA will take over direct supervision of the EU's "significant" trading venues as well as clearing and settlement infrastructures in a bid to simplify and streamline the rollout of Europe's Capital Markets Union project, the European Commission said today. 

Brussels said that the criteria used to define significant would include "scale, cross-border activity, interconnectedness with other infrastructures or markets, and the potential impact on financial stability."

Crypto-asset service providers will also be authorised and supervised directly by ESMA, making it the "single point of authorisation and oversight for CASPs and significant market infrastructures", the EC said.