SMFSC Releases Work Plan for Fiscal Year 2025–26

Strategic Commitments and Key Initiatives

SMFSC will continue to implement the ten commitments outlined in its strategy, with a focus on preventing systemic risks, raising self-regulatory standards, and promoting fair market competition. Key priorities include:

• Investor Protection: Assessing member institutions’ compliance with the high standards set by the Consumer Duty; promoting investors’ long-term financial well-being through advisory and guidance boundary reviews; ensuring pension and related products offer fair value.
• Promoting Competition and Growth: Enhancing the attractiveness and international reach of San Marino’s capital markets; supporting financial institutions in investment, innovation, and expansion through innovative services; streamlining membership and licensing procedures to improve efficiency.
• Building a Data-Driven Self-Regulatory Organization: Increasing automation of analytical tools to identify and respond to market risks more swiftly; collaborating with member firms to ensure the application of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence within safe and compliant frameworks.

Background and Recent Developments

The annual work plan builds on significant achievements in recent years, positioning SMFSC as a more outcome-focused, decisive, and data-aware self-regulatory body.

The implementation of the Consumer Duty marks a major shift, establishing higher and more transparent investor protection standards. This has already led some institutions to adjust product pricing and fee structures.

By leveraging data analysis, SMFSC can identify potential risks more quickly and take decisive action. Over the past year, SMFSC has required the removal of over 5,000 potentially misleading promotional materials and issued more than 1,000 warning notices to non-compliant entities or individuals. Meanwhile, the number of firms disqualified for failing to meet minimum standards more than doubled compared to the previous year.

Additionally, SMFSC has refined its rules and processes, proposing the most comprehensive set of capital market reforms in decades to encourage more institutions to register or list in San Marino, thereby strengthening its international competitiveness.