ESMA sanctions report points to enforcement gaps across EU markets

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ESMA report on EU enforcement

Highlights

ESMA's 2025 consolidated report finds total administrative sanctions and measures stable year-on-year, with enforcement activity focused on Market Abuse Regulation and MiFID/MiFIR breaches.
Germany, France, and Spain account for about two thirds of the total administrative fines value across the EEA, reflecting concentrated enforcement in a few jurisdictions.
Significant disparities in sanctions application among EU states support ESMA's push for stronger supervisory convergence and more consistent enforcement outcomes across the region.

2025 sanctions data and enforcement patterns

As reported by European Securities and Markets Authority, its third consolidated report on sanctions and measures covers penalties imposed across the European Economic Area in 2025 and is intended to improve transparency around sanctions data reported under EU financial acts within its remit.

The report says the number of administrative sanctions and measures remains broadly stable compared with the previous two years. It also highlights increased use of settlements and shows that enforcement activity remains focused mainly on breaches of the Market Abuse Regulation and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation.

Germany, France and Spain account for about two thirds of the total value of administrative fines across the EEA, underlining how enforcement activity remains concentrated in a limited number of jurisdictions.

Implications for EU supervisory convergence

The findings point to significant differences in how sanctions are applied across the region, including the number and type of measures used, the level of fines and the use of settlement procedures. ESMA says this supports the case for stronger convergence in enforcement, particularly where weak activity cannot be explained by the size of a national market.

The regulator adds that supervisory effectiveness depends ultimately on whether market participants comply with the rules, rather than only on the volume or value of sanctions issued in a member state. Even so, it says enforcement actions remain an important part of the supervisory toolkit.

Building on the report, ESMA says it will continue to encourage exchanges among national securities and markets authorities on the effective and consistent implementation of capital markets rules, including through case discussions. The stated aim is to help ensure that similar breaches lead to similar enforcement outcomes across the EU, regardless of where they are committed.

In our earlier article on the FCA’s plan to expand the use of artificial intelligence in supervision and enforcement, we outlined how the regulator is testing AI tools at financial firms and moving toward an “AI-enabled” supervisory model to automate parts of its work. We also noted the FCA’s stance that many frontier AI models may sit outside today’s regulatory perimeter when they provide information rather than regulated advice, leaving key policy boundaries under active debate.

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