The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU securities markets regulator and supervisor, has submitted to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission its second report on national rules governing the marketing of investment funds under the Regulation on cross-border distribution of funds.

The key findings are the following:

The transposition of the Directive on cross-border distribution of funds and the entry into force of the ESMA Guidelines on funds’ marketing communications helped reach a greater level of harmonisation in areas where national divergences existed (identified in the first ESMA Report submitted in 2021).
Despite the powers NCAs have under the Regulation, it is apparent that only a limited number of NCAs carried out any ex-ante verifications of marketing communications, while an increasing number of NCAs reported carrying out ex-post verifications.
In this report, ESMA provides an overview of the marketing requirements across Member States, and analyses the effects of national laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing the marketing communications for investment funds. The report is based on responses provided by National Competent Authorities (NCAs) to two questionnaires prepared by ESMA.