Regulator profile ·
ESMA — European Securities and Markets Authority
Tracked byBrokerlist Editorial · Independent review teamUpdated
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is the EU's independent securities and markets supervisor. ESMA does NOT directly licence forex or CFD providers — individual firm authorisation is granted by national competent authorities (NCAs) such as BaFin, AMF, CySEC, CBI and MFSA. ESMA sets the technical standards and product-intervention rules they enforce.
- Jurisdiction
- European Union (EU-27) and European Economic Area · firm authorisation by national competent authorities.
- Founded
- 2011
- Mandate
- Established by Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 as part of the European System of Financial Supervision. ESMA writes Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) under MiFID II/MiFIR, MAR, EMIR and other instruments; runs cross-EU registers; and conducts product-intervention measures binding on all member states.
- Consumer protection
- ESMA does not directly compensate retail investors. Compensation operates at the national level — typically up to €100,000 per depositor for bank deposits and €20,000-€70,000 for investor protection — administered by each member state's scheme. ESMA's product-intervention powers (e.g. negative balance protection) bind national supervisors.
- Retail leverage caps
- ESMA's 2018 product-intervention measures introduced harmonised retail leverage caps now permanent across the EU/EEA: 1:30 on major FX pairs, 1:20 on minor FX pairs and gold, 1:10 on commodities and major equity indices, 1:5 on individual equities, 1:2 on cryptoasset CFDs. Binary options for retail clients are permanently banned.
- Public register
- ESMA hosts cross-EU registers — investment-firm passporting notifications, prospectuses, MiFID waivers — but individual licence verification is done at national-NCA level. For firm authorisation, look up the appropriate national register (e.g. BaFin, REGAFI, MFSA Register). Open register ↗
- Dispute resolution
- ESMA does not handle individual investor complaints. Cross-border disputes are coordinated through FIN-NET, the network of national financial-services ombudsmen. Domestic disputes go to the appropriate national ombudsman (FOS in UK, Médiateur de l'AMF in France, etc.).
- Editor notes
- When a broker advertises «ESMA-regulated» it actually means «authorised by an EU national competent authority and subject to ESMA-set rules». Verify the actual licensing NCA via the broker's legal entity disclosure — the EU passport lets a CySEC-licensed firm market across the EU/EEA, but the home-state regulator (CySEC in this example) is who supervises and where complaints land.
Brokers we track with a ESMA licence
No brokersNo tracked broker currently holds a ESMA licence in our database.