The European Securities and Markets Authority used its 2025 Annual Report, published in mid-June, to set out a year focused on tougher supervision, regulatory simplification and support for market innovation, alongside continued work with national authorities on implementing the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework.
For retail forex and CFD traders the direct read-across is modest, but the direction of travel matters. A regulator emphasising stronger, more centralised supervision and the build-out of MiCA signals an EU environment in which authorisation standards and cross-border oversight keep tightening — the same machinery that underpins ESMA's existing product-intervention rules on CFD leverage caps and margin close-out. Progress on areas such as T+1 settlement and consolidated tape also points to broader structural change that brokers must absorb.
The practical takeaway is one of continuity rather than upheaval: there is no new CFD or leverage measure here. Readers should still prioritise brokers authorised by a reputable EU national competent authority and passported under ESMA's framework, since it is that supervisory chain — now being reinforced — that determines whether a venue's licence is worth anything when something goes wrong.