ESMA has published its 2025 report on marketing requirements and marketing communications under the EU’s cross-border distribution of funds framework, offering an updated snapshot of how national competent authorities (NCAs) oversee fund promotions across the bloc.
Zeidler Group recently delved into what firms need to know.
Released on 6 January 2026, the report is produced every two years and compiles information submitted by NCAs during 2025. It maps the national laws, regulations and administrative provisions that apply to the marketing of Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) across European Member States, with ESMA confirming the next edition is due in two years.
For asset managers operating cross-border, the document is designed to be a practical reference point. It summarises national rules on fund marketing and sets out insights intended to help UCITS management companies, alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) and broader asset management teams navigate differing local requirements when promoting funds to investors in multiple EU jurisdictions.
A central takeaway is that, compared with the previous reporting cycle, the regulatory landscape has remained broadly stable. ESMA found that national rules on fund marketing have not undergone significant changes since 2023, suggesting firms should focus less on new rule rewrites and more on consistent implementation and controls across markets.
A substantial portion of the report focuses on marketing communications, where ESMA gathered data using an NCA questionnaire, Zeidler explained. Regulators were asked to outline their approaches to requesting changes to marketing materials under Regulation (EU) 2019/1156, as well as under the cross-border distribution of funds measures introduced via Directive (EU) 2019/1160 (often referenced as the CBDF framework). The questionnaire also asked NCAs to identify the most common types of breaches they see in practice, against the background that Article 4 requirements apply to all marketing communications addressed to EU-based investors or prospective investors in UCITS and AIFs.
According to ESMA, the NCAs’ submissions covered several core areas, including how often they required amendments following ex-ante checks (where applicable), the volume and outcomes of ex-post reviews, the most frequent breaches and the nature of those breaches, plus illustrative examples. ESMA has pulled breach examples into Annex IV, positioning them as hands-on guidance that firms can use when drafting, refreshing or reviewing marketing communications—particularly where language, fairness, risk presentation, and clarity for end-investors are under scrutiny.
The report also adds a new layer this cycle: statistics on cross-border fund marketing notifications within the EU. ESMA says these figures are drawn from its database of cross-border fund marketing notifications, supported by the ESMA Register for cross-border marketing of AIFs and UCITS, which was published in July 2022 as a central record of registration dates and marketing activity.
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