Carlo Comporti will take over as Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority on 1 November 2026, the Council of the European Union confirmed at its Brussels meeting this week, succeeding Verena Ross at the head of the EU's main markets regulator.

The handover matters for trading desks on both sides of the Atlantic. ESMA sets Level 2 technical standards under MiFID II/MiFIR, drafts technical advice for EMIR, the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation, the Central Securities Depositories Regulation, the Benchmarks Regulation and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. It also oversees trade repositories, approves product-intervention measures, and runs the Equivalence Decisions that determine where EU-facing firms can route order flow.

What's Comporti's regulatory track record?

Comporti joined Italy's CONSOB as a Commissioner in February 2022 and held the seat through this week. During his CONSOB tenure he sat on ESMA's Board of Supervisors and Management Board, chairing ESMA's Digital Finance Standing Committee — the cross-asset group that shaped the regulator's crypto-asset and distributed-ledger technology rulemaking under MiCA.

He also held a seat on the IOSCO Board and chaired the IOSCO Audit and Finance Committee, the body that coordinates the international audit-supervision workstream feeding into IFRS Foundation oversight.

Before regulatory work, Comporti spent eleven years at Promontory, the financial-services consultancy that became a business unit of IBM Consulting. From 2011 to 2022 he served as CEO of Promontory Italy and COO of Promontory Europe, and before that as Directeur Général of Promontory France. His earlier regulatory career included the Secretary General role at the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) from 2008, where he ran the secretariat through the 2010–2011 transition into ESMA itself.

What did the outgoing Chair have to say?

Verena Ross, who has led ESMA as Chair for the past five years, welcomed her successor with a public statement: "It is a pleasure to welcome Carlo as the new Chair of ESMA. Together with the Board of Supervisors, I wish Carlo all the best in his new position. He brings decades of experience in European financial markets regulation and knows ESMA well. I look forward to seeing ESMA continue to grow under his leadership."

Ross added her own departure note: "For my part, it has been a true honour to lead ESMA as Chair for the last 5 years. The dedication, professionalism and expertise of ESMA colleagues have been the driving force behind everything we have achieved together."

What did Comporti say on appointment?

The incoming Chair framed the role in terms of integration: "I am honoured to have been entrusted with this role at a time when ESMA is at the heart of discussions shaping the future of European financial markets." He named the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the European Parliament and "other authorities and stakeholders across the financial sector" as counterparts.

He added a market-integration line: "Now more than ever, ESMA plays a critical role in ensuring that European markets further develop and integrate, to support the needs of companies, investors and citizens."

What changes for trading desks?

The chair does not write Level 1 rules, which remain the prerogative of the European Parliament and Council under the ordinary legislative process. But the chair drives ESMA's standard-setting pipeline, which sets the technical parameters coded into:

• Pre- and post-trade transparency waivers and deferrals under MiFIR
• Mandatory clearing thresholds and risk-margining methodologies under EMIR 3.0
• Real-time and transaction reporting reference data under MiFIR Article 2
• Consolidated tape provider designation and tape selection methodology

Both buy-side firms operating systematic internalisers and sell-side brokers running order-book and RFQ platforms will watch the Digital Finance Standing Committee agenda closely. Comporti chaired that committee during his CONSOB years and is likely to keep the file active, particularly for crypto-asset service providers registered under MiCA Title V and for DLT pilot regime reporting.

Forward outlook

Ross remains in seat through 31 October 2026, so the current consultation pipeline — including consolidated-tape vendor designations and the EMIR 3.0 active-account rebalancing timeline — closes under her signature before she hands the file to Comporti on the morning of 1 November 2026.