The board is the main decision-taking body of Esma. It consists of the heads of relevant national supervisors, along with an elected chair.

Carlos Tavares, chair of Portugal's Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários and former head of the Committee of European Securities Regulators, was first elected vice-chairman.

The board of supervisors then proposed Steven Maijoor as its first chairman.

Maijoor, director of Dutch regulator the Authority for the Financial Markets, must have his selection approved by the European Parliament. They have a month to object.

The chairman will be responsible for the work of Esma’s supervisory team, chairing meetings of both boards.

They will be appointed for a five year term, and will be based in Paris.

At AFM, where he has worked since 2004, Maijoor is in charge of financial reporting, auditing issues, market integrity supervision and part of the business operations.

He has chaired the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators, and is a part time professor at Maastricht University and the VU University Amsterdam.

Management board formed

Esma has also established a management board, electing the first six members: Karl-Burkhard Caspari, BaFin, Germany; Jean Guill, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, Luxembourg; Alexander Justham, Financial Services Authority, UK; Raul Malmstein, Finantsinspektsioon Estonia; Kurt Pribil, Finanzmarktaufsicht, Austria; Fernando Restoy, Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores, Spain.

The first set of internal rules and procedures defining how Esma will function were adopted.

Among these were operational procedures for the board of supervisors and the management board, the decision-making process for adopting technical standards and guidelines, a code of conduct and a set of financial rules.

Esma confirmed that all existing Level Three measures issued by Cesr remain valid.

Squaring up to the CFTC

The European Securities and Markets Authority’s vice-chairman, Carlos Tavares, wasted no time before flexing the new organisation’s muscles with a strongly worded letter to CFTC chairman Gary Gensler in January.

Esma is concerned about the CFTC’s proposed rules on foreign swap data repositories and foreign boards of trade.

Tavares said the body’s comments were “not a formal contribution to [the CFTC’s] consultations”, but that he “would like to raise... attention to those issues that have a direct impact on our cooperation in this field” – principally the registration of foreign swap data repositories.

“In the case of foreign SDRs, our concerns stem from the fact that in the proposed rulemakings on SDRs we have not identified any reference to equivalency of regulatory regimes or cooperation with the authorities of the country of establishment of the foreign SDRs,” the letter said.

“According to our reading, foreign SDRs are actually subject to a stricter regime than the resident ones, as they need to provide a legal opinion certifying that they can provide the CFTC with prompt access to their books and records and that they can be subject to onsite inspections and examinations by the CFTC,” Tavares added.

“Against this background, we strongly encourage you to consider a different regime than the one described in your proposed rulemakings,” he concluded. “Accordingly, you may want to contemplate a regime where foreign SDRs can register with the CFTC if the laws and regulations in a foreign jurisdiction are equivalent to the US ones and if a memorandum of understanding between the CFTC and the relevant foreign authorities has been signed.

“That MoU would ensure access to all the information you would need for exercising your duties and would define the supervisory activities conducted on the foreign SDRs, eg. with common on-site inspections.”