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MiFID II mandated European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), in cooperation with the European Banking Authority (EBA) and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), to develop Guidelines for the assessment and the supervision of cross-selling practices. In order to take into account the cross-sectoral implications of this mandate, the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published the draft Guidelines under the auspices of the Joint Committee, and did so by widening the scope such that they consistently cover cross-selling practices in all three sectors. Following the joint consultation, several concerns were raised as to the ESAs’ ability to address cross-selling in a way that is compatible with related provisions in other Level 1 legislation, such as the Mortgage Credit Directive and the Payment Accounts Directive. Therefore, the Joint Committee decided not to issue final joint Guidelines, and for ESMA instead to issue its ESMA-only Guidelines covering only the investment sector. In addition, the three ESAs sent a letter to the European Commission asking the co-legislator to address the differences in the existing legislation and to ensure that the ESAs can regulate cross-selling practices in a consistent way across the three sectors, for the benefit of consumers, financial institutions, and supervisory authorities.

In accordance with the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR), the EBA is tasked with monitoring the market for structured deposits across the European Union. In its paper, the EBA proposes a set of criteria and factors and includes explanatory notes to provide the rationale for each deviation from the criteria published by ESMA. The EBA considered that some of those criteria were not applicable to structured deposits, while others needed to be adapted and in some cases, new criteria had to be introduced, so as to take into account characteristics that are specific to structured deposits.