Throughout 2025, FIA submitted more than 80 responses to regulatory consultations around the world. We raised the voice of members and the broader industry to inform the debate and advocate for positions we believe are critical to well‑functioning markets.
As a highly regulated industry, we recognize the delicate balance required to ensure regulation is fit for purpose – supporting open, competitive and transparent markets.
At the same time, we have leaned in on the global push to reduce the regulatory red tape where it is duplicative, burdensome and costly to market participants.
Complementing these consultations, we meet with policymakers at our own conferences, other industry forums and through FIA-organized events like fly-ins. These special events, where our full board and regional advisory board members literally fly-in from across the world to a capital to meet with policymakers, create the top layer of our advocacy pyramid.
While our team at FIA have the knowledge and expertise to carry the water on the issues for the industry, our board and advisory board members are the very market participants that must work with and account for the regulations policymakers enact. It is their voices and presence that add an extra sense of the real-world implications of what policymakers propose.
Earlier this month, that perspective was on full display as FIA members descended on Brussels for an EU fly‑in.
As our CEO Walt Lukken shared last July on the heels of the US fly-in, one cannot overstate the importance of showing up – in person – to meet with policymakers and have those face-to-face conversations. It is critical to connect with these individuals and discuss FIA’s priorities.
Over the course of two-plus days, we met with policymakers at the European Commission, several EU Member States’ representations, key members of the European Parliament and their staff, and leaders at the European Securities and Markets Authority and European Central Bank.
We reiterated the story of the global cleared derivatives industry, how we agree with the push to simplify the regulatory burden on our members and discussed centralised supervision.
We also asked questions and did a lot of listening.
We wanted to hear more about the extent to which greater supervisory centralisation at the EU level will happen. The Market Integration and Supervision Package, published in December 2025, is the legislative vehicle for this initiative.
It proposes expanded EU-level supervision by ESMA over significant trading venues, central counterparties, central securities depositories and crypto-asset service providers. It also aims to reform ESMA’s governance and supervisory toolkit and adjust supervisory fees and funding mechanisms.
A tall ask in any legislative environment, this will prove challenging for the EU as it will require member states to relinquish national supervisory control in favour of EU-level oversight.
For anyone who has followed our markets in the EU over the past half-decade, of course we discussed EMIR 3.0.
We took the opportunity to ask some detailed questions about the technical rules being drafted to operationalise new requirements set out within EMIR 3.0. Does ESMA and the Commission envision taking action to address concerns on timing, proportionality and lack of clarity on reporting requirements for clearing activity under Article 7d and Article 7b? Can existing data and reporting channels be leveraged to avoid duplicative or inconsistent reporting by financial participants?
And, perhaps fundamentally, will the European Union seize today’s simplification ambitions and ensure better sequencing between Level 1 legislation and its accompanying Level 2 technical rules? EMIR 3.0 implementation challenges demonstrate there is room for rulemaking improvements that can have a significant positive impact on EU competitiveness.
The fly‑in reinforced a simple but powerful truth: policy is shaped by people, and presence matters. Face‑to‑face engagement allows nuance, challenge and real‑world perspective that cannot be captured on paper alone. As EU policymakers weigh far‑reaching changes to supervision and market structure, FIA will continue to show up – bringing member voices directly into the rooms where decisions are made.
