The European Parliament's ECON committee on 2 July 2026 heard ECB Supervisory Board Chair Claudia Buch on bank resilience and debated the Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP), exposing a central divide over how far to centralize supervision under ESMA. The three draft reports from Markus Ferber (EPP), Eero Heinäluoma (S&D) and Giovanni Crosetto (ECR) stake out incompatible positions on the scope of direct ESMA oversight, with Ferber supporting EU-level supervision for all CCPs and CSDs but defending national supervision for large asset managers, Heinäluoma backing direct ESMA supervision for significant asset managers, CCPs, CSDs, trading venues and crypto actors, and Crosetto limiting direct ESMA supervision mainly to significant CASPs, citing ESMA's insufficient expertise and crisis capacity. Enikő Győri (PfE) opposed automatic centralization, stressing subsidiarity, while João Cotrim De Figueiredo (Renew) supported stronger ESMA supervision but cautioned on asset managers' scale. K. M. Peter-Hansen (Greens/EFA) welcomed ESMA powers over all CCPs and CSDs and planned to extend to trading venues and largest asset managers. On competitiveness, Ferber proposed an ESMA competitiveness target inspired by the FCA; Crosetto and Győri welcomed a secondary competitiveness mandate, while Heinäluoma and Peter-Hansen warned against weakening investor protection and sustainability. On innovation, Crosetto framed settlement finality reform as cutting legal fragmentation while modernizing for DLT and tokenization, supporting a regulation over a directive. Ferber treated tokenization as viable if aligned with CSDR. Győri supported legal certainty but warned technical standards could become too rigid. John Berrigan (European Commission) backed stronger ESMA governance and urged agreement by end-2026, cautioning against incoherent amendments. Consensus existed on the difficult risk environment, proportionality for smaller institutions, need for action on integration, and legal certainty for DLT. Aurore Lalucq (S&D) set amendment deadlines for 16 July. Affected stakeholders include banks, asset managers, CCPs, CSDs, crypto-asset service providers, and national supervisors.
Source▶ Watch debate ↗
EU Matrix analysis