European watchdogs prepare direct oversight of AI and tokenization in retail finance
Summary
ESMA will make AI and tokenized financial products a supervisory priority from 2027, examining their use in regulated firms’ core, customer-facing activities. EU regulators plan to map adoption next year and conduct initial checks on selected firms, focusing on governance, data quality and investor outcomes. The shift extends oversight beyond MiCA’s crypto-asset rules to technology use across the securities industry. Separately, the ECB has announced plans for limited investment in tokenized securities and launched a wholesale platform connecting distributed-ledger infrastructure with conventional payments.
