• Leading financial industry associations representing European exchange participants today set out key principles for effective outage management.

A group of leading financial industry associations are today urging European exchanges to fully and consistently implement outage protocols, following a series of significant trading disruptions since 2020 that have impacted the orderly functioning of equity markets. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the European Funds and Management Association (EFAMA) and the FIA European Principal Traders Association (FIA EPTA), representing a significant share of European exchange participants, are calling on stock exchanges to take necessary steps to ensure they are fully equipped to follow market outage protocols. While the joint trade associations acknowledge that outages are inevitable as markets rely increasingly on electronification and automation, we stress that their impact can and must be minimised through robust, transparent, and consistently applied procedures. Regulators and market participants have worked hard in recent years to set clear standards for managing outages. The associations note significant progress, including the ESMA Final Report on Market Outages (May 2023), the FCA Policy Statement on Improving Equity Secondary Markets (May 2023), and the Plato Partnership Proposed Standards (November 2024). Exchanges have broadly committed to aligning their procedures with these regulatory and industry-driven initiatives. However, the associations warn that the usefulness of these protocols is only realised if they are accurately executed during outages. Recent incidents have shown gaps in adherence, creating confusion, unnecessary risk, and further disruption for investors and issuers. The most recent outage in July 2025 underscores how disruptive trading interruptions can be for investors, markets, and the wider economy. To support more resilient markets, the associations outline four key principles:

• Order status clarity– Exchanges must provide accurate and consistent information on market status, instrument prices, orders, and trades, with a clear “outage/closed” status to avoid misleading participants.

• Regular updates– Exchanges should communicate at least every 15 minutes during an outage, simultaneously to all participants, and in machine-readable formats that can be integrated into trading systems.

• Reopening procedures– Reopening times should be communicated at least 15 minutes in advance on “round” time increments, with prior consultation with participants and consideration of an order book purge if necessary.

• Closing auctions– Exchanges should give 30 minutes’ notice on whether a closing auction will be held, with clear fallback arrangements to provide closing prices if systems remain down.

  The associations highlight that confidence in Europe’s capital markets depends on transparency and reliability. Adhering to established outage protocols is critical to safeguarding investor trust, maintaining orderly markets, and supporting Europe’s competitiveness.

Banque de France and Euroclear have unveiled a joint project, Pythagore, to tokenise Negotiable European Commercial Paper (NEU CP), representing a key move toward streamlining short-term debt markets through distributed ledger technology (DLT).

The tokenisation project intends to provide central operational and administrative efficiencies, while improving transparency and security for market participants.

The pilot phase of the project is slated to begin at the end of 2026, in accordance with the start of the Eurosystem project, and plans to introduce an interconnected wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with TARGET services.

Euroclear’s DLT-based platform will be tailored with interoperability at its centre, in order to facilitate seamless integration across financial infrastructures.

The combined effort draws on the foundation of a previous innovation collaboration between Euroclear and Banque de France, that enabled the issuance of France’s first digitally native note in November 2024.

Isabelle Delorme, head of product strategy and innovation at Euroclear, says: "Euroclear has a long-standing presence in France’s financial ecosystem, and we are proud to drive innovation alongside Banque de France. Tokenising NEU CP is a strategic step toward building a more modern, efficient, resilient, and interconnected market infrastructure.

“By enhancing transparency and operational efficiency, this initiative will reinforce France’s position as a leading hub for short-term financing and make its market even more attractive to issuers and investors."

Emmanuelle Assouan, director general for financial stability and operations at Banque de France, says: "The NEU CP market is the largest and already the most transparent short-term debt market in the euro area. Banque de France is mobilized to further strengthen its attractiveness at European level alongside issuers, investors and financial intermediaries, particularly with a view to creating a savings and investment union.

“The Pythagore project to tokenise the NEU CP market is fully in line with this ambition of an even more automated and transparent market. It constitutes a strategic segment for deploying the Eurosystem wholesale central bank digital currency from 2026 onwards"

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final report, recommending significant amendments to the regulatory technical standards on settlement discipline.

These changes aim to enhance settlement efficiency across the EU, facilitate the transition to a shorter settlement cycle (T+1) by 11 October 2027, and reduce the administrative burden on central securities depositories (CSDs) and market participants.

Designed to improve operational readiness for the EU financial industry, these changes include same-day (trade date) timing for trade allocations and settlement instructions, in addition to machine-readable formats for allocations and confirmations.

It also involves mandatory implementation of key functionalities such as hold and release, auto-partial settlement, and auto-collateralisation; as well as updated provisions for the monitoring and reporting of settlement fails.

ESMA says a phased-in implementation schedule, beginning in December 2026 and concluding by 11 October 2027, intended to ensure a smooth transition to the new regime.

Market infrastructures, financial intermediaries, and their clients are encouraged by the authority to treat these regulatory changes as a central element of their T+1 transition strategy.

Commenting on the news, James Pike, chief revenue officer of Taskize (a Euroclear company), says: “The ESMA report highlights a big shift in the market and will require firms to move processes to an earlier point in the processing cycle to meet T+1.

“These changes will need to be supported by a number of wholesale processes and technological changes which will require industry collaboration utilising technology solutions to drive real change both internal to organisations but across the industry participants.”

The draft amendments have been submitted to the European Commission, which has three months to decide on their adoption.

Despite global headwinds, ESG sentiment remains strong across Asia, with climate change and energy transition emerging as top priorities

ASIFMA’s Asset Management Group today released findings from its first-ever Asian Asset Owners ESG Survey, conducted between June and September 2025. The survey, complemented by follow-on in-depth interviews, captures the views of 55 leading asset owners across eight Asian jurisdictions, including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, family offices and insurance companies. Collectively, respondents hold at least US$4.9 trillion in assets under management or administration (excluding those who disclosed in ranges or chose not to disclose).

The survey reveals that Asia’s interest in sustainability has remained robust, with 85% of respondents expressing a positive stance toward ESG or sustainable investing. Notably, 90% reported no change in sentiment over the past 12 months despite global market volatility and shifting regulatory landscapes in other parts of the world.

“Asia’s asset owners are demonstrating a steady and thoughtful approach to sustainability,” said Yvette Kwan, Executive Advisor, ASIFMA Asset Management Group (AAMG). “The findings show that ESG integration is no longer a niche practice; it is becoming a core part of investment strategy, especially as risk management and long-term value creation continue to drive decisionmaking.”

Key highlights from the survey include:

• 75% of respondents are integrating ESG considerations into their investment processes

• Risk management remains a primary motivator for ESG adoption

• Climate change and energy transition are viewed as the most material ESG issues

• Limited investment opportunities and insufficient ESG data are cited as the top challenges

• Private assets are increasingly prioritized in sustainable investing strategies

• A majority of respondents believe sustainable investing will deliver superior long-term returns

“These insights underscore the growing sophistication and commitment of Asian asset owners in navigating the ESG landscape,” added Ms Kwan. “AAMG will continue to support the industry through dialogue, research and advocacy to ensure sustainable finance in Asia is both impactful and scalable.”

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has welcomed the engagement by national competent authorities (NCAs) on cyber risk and digital resilience, and calls for continued efforts on the Union Strategic Supervisory Priorities (USSPs).

In January, ESMA promoted cyber and digital resilience as a strategic supervisory priority of the Union, in direct alignment with the entry into application of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).

This allows enhanced coordination of EU supervisors’ efforts toward strengthening firms’ ICT risk management and improves the digital resilience of the EU securities market, the firm says.

Since the start of this USSP, NCAs and ESMA direct supervision have demonstrated commitment to monitor financial entities’ adherence to DORA requirements through proactive checks and supervisory capacity building.

Given the importance of securing a resilient financial sector, ESMA is calling on NCAs to keep up their efforts in 2026 to continue ensuring effective supervisory implementation across the EU.

Through 2025, ESMA and NCAs have carried out intense supervisory work on ESG disclosures, defined as a USSP since 2022.

According to ESMA, this has played a pivotal role in promoting the application of ESG requirements throughout the sustainable investment ecosystem, guiding and supporting market participants on this journey.

In 2026, NCAs will target efforts to consolidate achievements under the ESG disclosures USSP, focusing on high-risk areas.

Finally, in 2026, ESMA will consider new topics in other areas that may need intensified supervisory work at Union-wide level in the following years.