EU Regulators Impose 970 Sanctions Worth €71 Million in 2024 Enforcement Push ⋅ Crypto World Echo
Europeanfinancial regulators handed out more than 970 administrative sanctions andpenalties in 2023, collecting over €71 million in fines from firms thatviolated securities rules, according to the first consolidated enforcementreport published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
EU Financial RegulatorsImposed 970+ Sanctions Worth €71 Million in 2024
The datacovers enforcement actions taken by national regulators across all 27 EU memberstates plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. ESMA compiled the figures toprovide a clearer picture of how European authorities police their financialmarkets.
Marketabuse cases and violations of investment services rules drew the steepestpenalties. Regulators imposed the largest fines under the Market AbuseRegulation and the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, known asMiFID II, which governs how investment firms operate and treat clients.
⭐ #AnnualReportESMA | #ESMA’s work in 2024 was wrapped in the vision to improve the wider capital markets’ ecosystem and put investors and companies at the heart of it → https://t.co/MgrTStkgbL.Take a closer look at the milestones we have reached 👇
— ESMA – EU Securities Markets Regulator 🇪🇺 (@ESMAComms) June 16, 2025
ESMA shows significant variation in how different countries approach enforcement.Some jurisdictions rely heavily on administrative fines, while others preferalternative measures like public warnings or orders to change businesspractices.
“Thereport highlighted the need for greater convergence in sanctioning byNCAs,” ESMAnoted in its annual review, referring to national competent authorities thatsupervise financial firms in each country.
Related: ESMA Pushes Social Media Giants to Address Unauthorized Financial Ads
For example, the Cypriot regulator, CySEC, conducted more than 850 audits, imposed fines totaling €2.76 million, and withdrew several operating licenses. With new European Union regulations coming into force, the authority is intensifying its focus on compliance to support investor protection and maintain financial system stability.
ESMA’s Own Actions
Beyond thestatistical overview, ESMA took direct enforcement action of its own last year.In March, the authority sanctioned Scope Ratings GmbH for multiple breaches ofconflict-of-interest rules that apply to credit rating agencies. The caseinvolved what ESMA described as “structural failures and specificbreaches” of requirements designed to keep rating agencies independentfrom the companies they evaluate.
ESMA also withdrew the registration of EuroRating in June after the credit rating agency voluntarily renounced its authorization. Additionally, the authority withdrew authorization from an unnamed data reporting service provider under MiFIR after the entity requested the withdrawal.
The highest financial penalties were issued under the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II). These regulations, central to maintaining transparency and investor confidence in EU financial markets, accounted for the bulk of enforcement actions recorded over the past year.
Theenforcement data represents the first time European regulators have published acomprehensive view of sanctions across the continent’s fragmented regulatorylandscape. Previously, enforcement statistics were scattered across individualnational reports, making it difficult to assess the overall level of regulatoryactivity.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
