Investor Corner
Welcome to the Investor Corner of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). ESMA cannot tell you what investments to make, but we can help you to make a better-informed investment decision and avoid fraud and have created this corner to address frequent questions and issues that retail investors have often encountered.
What does ESMA do for Investors?
The European Security and Markets Authority (ESMA) plays an important role in enhancing the protection of investors in the European Union (EU).
As an independent European Supervisory Authority (ESA), ESMA:
- analyses risks to investors;
- writes rules to improve investor protection in financial markets across the EU;
- works in cooperation with the national competent authorities (NCAs) of all EU member states to develop tools and measures these NCAs can use to tackle and solve investor protection issues;
- can temporarily restrict or prohibit the marketing, distribution or sale of financial products;
- can develop training standards for the industry; and
- works with NCAs on educating investors.
Additionally, ESMA cooperates closely with the other European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) – in:
- analysing and tackling risks to investors related to investment, banking and insurance products; and
- writing rules to improve investor protection across the investment, banking and insurance sectors in the EU.
To help you with your practical questions and problems, ESMA’s Investor Corner contains:
What ESMA cannot do for Investors
As a publicly financed authority, ESMA’s activities to enhance investor protection depend on its legal mandate set out in ESMA’s founding Regulation and its limited staff and budgetary resources. Consequently, ESMA can unfortunately not help you with the following:
- ESMA cannot provide you with legal advice, for example, on a problem you may have with an investment firm. In such a case we would suggest that you seek legal advice from a consumer organisation or a lawyer.
- ESMA is not competent to deal with matters relating to a dispute you may have with an investment firm. Depending on what the dispute is about, the NCA that supervises this firm or the ombudsman in charge of financial service matters in your country (as relevant) could instead be able to help you.
- ESMA does not directly supervise investment firms, this is instead the responsibility of the NCAs.
