What happened
On 23 September 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced a new Union Strategic Supervisory Priority (USSP) on 'digital innovation,' with artificial intelligence and tokenisation as the initial focus areas beginning in 2027. Working with National Competent Authorities, ESMA will map where tokenisation is emerging, document how supervised firms use or plan to use AI and tokenisation in products and processes affecting investors, and run initial supervisory checks on a subset of the most affected firms. ESMA noted 87% of reported AI use cases were internal activities.
Why it matters
This is authoritative regulatory direction-setting: EU financial-market supervisors are explicitly flagging AI use inside regulated financial firms as a supervisory priority for 2027, signalling upcoming examinations and expectations for AI governance, model-risk and disclosure in EU securities/financial markets. It gives financial AI deployers a forward compliance roadmap.
Action needed
EU financial-market firms using AI should proactively inventory AI use cases (internal and investor-facing), document governance and model-risk controls now to be ready for 2027 supervisory mapping and checks; no immediate deadline, but establish AI-risk documentation ahead of the priority's start.