ESMA’s focus in recent years has been on convergence in the application of common supervisory rules. Brexit presents particular challenges to this objective and creates the potential for a significant shift of entities and activities from the UK to the EU27 as firms seek to secure their passporting rights. Executive Director Ross discussed the threat of a ‘race to the bottom’ emerging, in which Member States relax standards in a bid to attract UK-based asset-managers, and the role ESMA is playing in averting this.
About the Speaker:
Verena Ross has been the Executive Director of ESMA since June 2011. She began her career at the Bank of England in 1994, where she worked as an economist and then banking supervisor. She then joined the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) in 1998 to run the Executive Chairman’s office during the regulator’s start-up phase, and was briefly a seconded advisor to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in 2000. While at the FSA, she also held various positions in the Markets Division and was Director of the Strategy & Risk Division before becoming Director of the International Division.
