The European Union’s financial markets “coped well” with fallout from Britain’s decision last week to leave the bloc, with no extraordinary measures needed by regulators, the EU’s top securities watchdog said yesterday.
Markets fell sharply last Friday on the outcome of Britain’s referendum on EU membership, with bank shares plunging and sterling hitting its lowest level in three decades.
There was no need to use their powers on Friday
“The market infrastructure has coped well with the impact and that was not a reason to have any extraordinary measures,” Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority, told a Politico event in London.
The role of markets was to adjust values of assets and it was important to allow it to do this, Maijoor said.
ESMA and national regulators coordinated in advance and decided there was no need to use their powers on Friday, such as imposing short-selling bans, he said.