ESMA publishes second report on sanctions under AIFMD

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU securities markets regulator, today publishes its second annual report on the use by National Competent Authorities (NCAs) of sanctions under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).

In 2020 17 NCAs imposed a total of 131 penalties and/or measures, compared with 87 sanctions issued in 2019, and the total amount of financial penalties decreased to €3.3M, from €9M in 2019. 13 NCAs did not impose any sanction during this period.

A small number of NCAs are responsible for a majority of sanctions, and in general the numbers on a national level appear low.

The report published today contains an overview of the applicable legal framework and information on the penalties and measures imposed by NCAs from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. NCAs submit data on the use of sanctions to ESMA, which forms the basis of the annual aggregated report.

Next steps

ESMA continues its work to foster supervisory convergence in the application of the AIFMD and will issue separate reports on an annual basis for future reporting periods.