ESMA to make AI and tokenisation a named supervisory priority from 2027
Key points
- ESMA confirmed on 24 September 2026 that AI and tokenisation will become a supervisory priority from 2027, under a programme called 'Innovation with investor safeguards'.
- Regulators will map firms' use of AI and tokenised products in customer-facing activities, run initial checks on the most affected firms, and evaluate governance, data reliability and client outcomes.
- The initiative represents a shift from MiCA rulemaking, which took effect 1 July 2026, to active scrutiny of how tokenised finance and AI are deployed across the wider securities sector.
- The ECB separately announced plans to invest a small share of its reserves in tokenised securities and launched Pontes, a wholesale DLT-to-traditional-payment connectivity platform.
- The ECB and EU member-state central banks called this week for a wider ban on stablecoin yields and rewards, framing fiat-pegged digital assets as money rather than savings products.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced that artificial intelligence, tokenisation and other emerging financial technologies will become a formal supervisory priority beginning in 2027. The programme, labelled ‘Innovation with investor safeguards’, will see ESMA and national regulators across the European Union map how regulated firms deploy AI and tokenised products in customer-facing activities, conduct initial checks on the most affected businesses, and assess governance frameworks, data reliability and client outcomes.
The initiative marks a deliberate pivot in EU regulatory posture. Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which came into force on 1 July, established the rulebook for crypto assets; attention is now turning to how tokenised finance and AI are being embedded across the broader securities industry rather than confined to back-office processes. ESMA’s own framing captures the tension: firms are adopting these tools to compete for market share, and the authority views that dynamic as carrying both benefits and risks worth examining directly.
The announcement sits alongside a cluster of related European Central Bank (ECB) moves. The ECB disclosed plans this week to invest a small portion of its reserves in tokenised securities, and separately launched Pontes, a wholesale platform connecting distributed ledger technology (DLT) market infrastructure to traditional payment rails. The ECB and the bloc’s 27 central banks also called for a broader ban on stablecoin yields and rewards, arguing that fiat-pegged digital assets constitute money rather than savings instruments. Taken together, the signals suggest European institutional infrastructure is moving closer to tokenised markets even as supervisory scrutiny intensifies.