The Council of the European Union has confirmed Carlo Comporti as the next Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), according to a press release issued by the authority on 9 October 2026. ESMA, which describes itself as the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, said the appointment was confirmed at the Council’s meeting in Brussels that day and that Comporti will take up his position on 1 November 2026.
How the Appointment Came Together
Eunews reported that Comporti’s term will last five years and may be extended once. According to the outlet, ESMA’s board of supervisors gave the Council a shortlist of two candidates. After interviews with both, EU ambassadors reached a preliminary agreement on Comporti in July 2026, and the European Parliament gave its approval on 15 September, it said.
ESMA’s release described the current Chair, Verena Ross, as having led the authority for the last five years. Ross welcomed her successor, saying he “brings decades of experience in European financial markets regulation and knows ESMA well”. Comporti said he was honoured to have been entrusted with the role at a time when ESMA is, in his words, at the heart of discussions shaping the future of European financial markets, and he thanked the Board, the European Council and the European Parliament for their trust.
A Background in Market Regulation
According to ESMA, Comporti has served as a Commissioner at CONSOB, Italy’s markets regulator, since February 2022. During that period he was also a member of ESMA’s Board of Supervisors and Management Board, chaired its Digital Finance Standing Committee, and was a member of the IOSCO Board, where he chaired the Audit and Finance Committee.
Before joining CONSOB, ESMA said, he was chief executive of Promontory Italy and chief operating officer of Promontory Europe, a business unit of IBM Consulting, from 2011 to 2022, having earlier been Directeur Général of Promontory France. He served as Secretary General of the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) from 2008 and, the authority said, played a key role in the transition from CESR to ESMA in 2010 and 2011.
Why It Matters
ESMA’s role is to support investor protection and stable, integrated markets across the EU, and the choice of its Chair shapes how that work is led. Comporti already sits on two of the authority’s governing bodies, so the handover is between a departing Chair and a successor who knows its structures from the inside. How his priorities will differ, if at all, has not yet been set out in the sources reviewed, and will become clearer once he takes office on 1 November.
Leave a Reply