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About
Niamh Moloney specializes in EU financial markets regulation. Educated at Trinity College Dublin and Harvard Law School, she is a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Member of the Academia Europaea, and has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Zurich. Niamh’s books include EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation (4th edition, 2023), The Age of ESMA. Governing EU Financial Markets (2018), and Brexit and Financial Services. Law and Policy (2018, with Alexander, Barnard, Ferran, and Lang). Niamh is an editorial board member of several journals, including the European Law Review, a co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation, and a Series Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on International Corporate Law and Financial Market Regulation. She is a member of the LSE Council, the LSE’s governing body.
Niamh currently serves as an External Member of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Committee. Previously, Niamh served as an independent, non-executive director of the board of the Central Bank of Ireland. She was Chair of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, established by the government of Ireland in 2021 to review the state’s taxation and welfare systems, which reported in 2022 (Foundations for the Future). Niamh has also served as an alternate member of the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities and as a member of the Stakeholder Group of the European Securities and Markets Authority, and was Special Adviser to the 2014-2015 inquiry by the UK Parliament House of Lords EU Select Committee into the EU’s regulatory response to the financial crisis.
Research
Research Interests
Niamh's main research interest is to explore the EU's regulation of financial markets from institutional, substantive, and contextual perspectives. She is particularly interested in the consumer markets and in ESMA’s role in EU financial markets.
Publications
EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation (OUP 2023) 4th edition
This new edition is heavily revised from the third edition to reflect developments since 2014, including the Capital Markets Union agenda, the Covid-19 reform agenda, and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. It adopts the in-depth contextual and analytical approach of the earlier editions of this authoritative work and so considers the market, political, institutional, and international context of the regulatory and supervisory regime.
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The Age of ESMA. Governing EU Financial Markets (Hart Publishing, 2018)
Since its establishment in 2011, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has become a pivotal actor in EU financial market regulation and supervision. Its burgeoning influence extends from the rule-making process to supervisory convergence/coordination to direct supervision. Reflecting the now critical importance of ESMA to how the EU regulates and supervises financial markets, and with ESMA at an inflection point in its evolution, particularly in light of the Commission’s 2017 proposals to reform ESMA and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, The Age of ESMA maps, contextualises, and examines ESMA’s role and the implications for EU financial market governance.
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Brexit and Financial Services: Law and Policy (Hart Publishing, 2018), with Professors Kern Alexander, Catherine Barnard, Eilís Ferran, and Andrew Lang)
This timely book examines the legal and regulatory implications of Brexit for financial services. As the UK disentangles its financial system from the EU, law will matter to a profound extent. Treaties, legislation, and regulation, at UK, EU, and international levels, and the many dynamics and interests which drive them, will frame and shape the ultimate settlement between the UK and the EU, as well as how the EU financial system develops post-Brexit and how the international financial system responds. Written by leading authorities in the field, this book addresses and contextualises the legal, regulatory, and policy issues across five dimensions, which correspond to the major legal spheres engaged: financial regulation implications and market access consequences for the UK financial system; labour law and free movement consequences for the UK financial system; the implications internally for EU financial governance and the euro area; the implications and relevance of the EEA/EFTA financial services market; and the trade law and World Trade Organization law implications.
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Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (OUP, 2015) (ed. with Professor Eilís Ferran and Professor Jennifer Payne)
The financial system and its regulation have undergone exponential growth and dramatic reform over the last thirty years. This period has witnessed major developments in the nature and intensity of financial markets, as well as repeated cycles of regulatory reform and development, often linked to crisis conditions. The recent financial crisis has led to unparalleled interest in financial regulation from policymakers, economists, legal practitioners, and the academic community, and has prompted large-scale regulatory reform. The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation is the first comprehensive, authoritative, and state-of-the-art account of the nature of financial regulation. Written by an international team of leading scholars in the field, it takes a contextual and comparative approach to examine scholarly, policy, and regulatory developments in the past three decades.
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EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation (OUP, 2014, 3 edition)
EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation provides the first comprehensive, critical, and contextual account of the vast new rule-book which now applies to the EU financial market in the aftermath of the seismic reforms which have followed the financial crisis. Topics covered in-depth include the AIFMD, EMIR, the Short Selling Regulation, the new market abuse and transparency regimes, the rating agency regime, the UCITS IV-VI reforms, and MiFID II/MiFIR; the analysis is wide-reaching, extending to secondary legislation and relevant soft law.
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The Regulatory Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (Cambridge University Press 2012) (with Eilís Ferran, Jennifer G. Hill, John C. Coffee, Jr)
The EU and the US responded to the global financial crisis by changing the rules for the functioning of financial services and markets and by establishing new oversight bodies. With the US Dodd–Frank Act and numerous EU regulations and directives now in place, this book provides a timely and thoughtful explanation of the key elements of the new regimes in both regions, of the political processes which shaped their content and of their practical impact. Insights from areas such as economics, political science and financial history elucidate the significance of the reforms. Australia's resilience during the financial crisis, which contrasted sharply with the severe problems that were experienced in the EU and the US, is also examined. The comparison between the performances of these major economies in a period of such extreme stress tells us much about the complex regulatory and economic ecosystems of which financial markets are a part.
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Law Reform and Financial Markets (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2011) (ed. K. Alexander)
Law Reform and Financial Markets addresses how law reform can be used to support strong financial markets and draws on the global financial crisis as a case study.
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How to Protect Investors. Lessons from the EC and the UK (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Taking as a case study the wide-ranging investor protection regime which governs Europe's retail markets after an intense reform period, the book provides a critical, comparative and contextual examination of the nature of investor protection, exploring why the retail investor should be protected, whether retail investor engagement with the markets should be encouraged, and how investor-protection laws should be designed, particularly in light of the financial crisis.
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EC Securities Regulation 2nd. ed. (Oxford University Press, 2008)
In the wake of radical and far-reaching legal, market, and institutional reforms which followed the completion of the Financial Services Action Plan, the EC regime for securities regulation now governs Community financial markets and has almost replaced national law in this area. This long-awaited second edition of EC Securities Regulation considers the extensive new regime in its legal, institutional, political, and market context and assesses the forces which have shaped it.
- ‘Panel response: fiscal policy - taxation, reform, and the commission on taxation and welfare’ (2025) Economic and Social Review 56 (1) 41–48
- ‘Capital Markets Union: the Lure of Grand Designs and a Call for Modesty’ (2025) 50 European Law Review 21
- 'The SSM at 10: SSM Governance and the NCA/SSM Relationship' (2024) 101 Quaderni di Ricerca Giuridica 29
- ‘Access to the UK Financial Market After the UK Withdrawal from the EU: Disruption, Design and Diffusion’ (2024) 25 European Business Organization Law Review 25
- ‘Bank Resolution and Fundamental Rights: a Note from the UK’ (2024) ZBB (Journal of Banking Law and Banking) 47
- 'EU Financial market regulation a Decade from the Financial-Crisis-Era Reforms: Crisis, Uncertainty, and Capacity' (2023) 42 Oxford Yearbook of European Law
- 'Third Countries and EU Financial Market Access: Technocracy, Politics, and the End of Deference?' in Jaeger et al eds., Consolidating Brexit (Verlag, 2023) 203
- 'Third Countries and EU Financial Market Access: Technocracy, Politics, and the End of Deference?'LSE Legal Studies Working Paper No. 16/2023
- 'The Irish Commission on Taxation and Welfare 2021-2022: An Exercise in Strategic Policy Making' LSE Legal Studies Working Paper No. 14/2023 (with Colm O'Reardon)
- 'Retail Investor Protection and Empowerment: Observations from a Survey of the EU’s Regulatory Experiment and in light of Covid-19' in A Laby (ed), Cambridge Handbook of Investor Protection (Cambridge University Press, 2022) 76
- 'Financial Services and Brexit: Unfinished Business for the UK and EU' in F Fabrinni (ed), The Framework of EU UK Relations (Oxford University Press, 2021) 115
- '21 Years from the Financial Services Action Plan: is EU Capital Market Regulation ‘Coming of Age?’' Securities Law Journal (Cadernos do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários) (2021) 801
- ‘Financial Services under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Reflections on Unfinished Business for the EU and UK’, Brexit Institute Working Paper Series No 3/2021
- ‘The EU Capital Market: a project for the next thirty years’ in D Chad, E Heins and D Scott (eds), European Futures: Challenges and Crossroads for the European Union of 2050 (Routledge, 2021) 21
- ‘Banking Union and the Charter of Fundamental Rights’ in C Ziloli and K-P Wojcek (eds), Judicial Review and the European Banking Union (Elgar, 2021) 209
- ‘EU Financial Market Governance and the Covid-19 Crisis’ (with Pierre-Henri Conac) 17 European Company and Financial Law Review (2020) 363
- ‘Reflections on ESMA at a Crossroads’ in Festschrift for Professor Klaus Hopt on his 80th Birthday (de Gruyter, 2020) 779
- ‘Reflections on the EU Third Country Regime for Capital Markets in the Shadow of Brexit’ 17 European Company and Financial Law Review (2020) 35
- ‘Close Cooperation: the SSM Institutional Framework and Lessons from the ESAs’ in Building Bridges: central banking in an interconnected world - proceedings of the 2019 ECB Legal Conference (ECB, 2019) 296-313
- 'The European Supervisory Authorities and Discretion: Can the Functional and Constitutional Circles be Squared?' in J Mendes (ed), EU Executive Discretion, Public Interests and the Limits of Law (Oxford University Press, 2019) 85
- 'Technocratic and Centralized Decision-making in Banking Union’s Single Supervisory Mechanism: Can Single Market and Banking Union Governance Effectively Co-exist in a post-Brexit World?' in H Micklitz and S Grundmann (eds), The European Banking Union. Constitutional Beacon for Advanced Integration or Deathknell for Democracy? (Hart Publishing, 2019) 141
- 'Capital Markets Union, Third Countries and Equivalence: Law, Markets and Brexit' in D Busch, E Avgouleas, and G Ferrarini (eds), Capital Markets Union in Europe (Oxford University Press, 2018) 97
- ‘EU Financial Market Governance and the Retail Investor: Reflections at an Inflection Point’ 37 Oxford Yearbook of European Law (2018) 251
- 'Brexit and Financial Services: (yet] another re-ordering of institutional governance for the EU financial system' (2018) 55 Common Market Law Review 175
- 'EU Financial Governance after Brexit: the rise of technocracy and the absorption of the UK’s withdrawal' in K Alexander, C Barnard, E Ferran, A Lang and N Moloney, Brexit and Financial Services: Law and Policy (Hart Publishing, 2018)
- '"Bending to Uniformity": EU Financial Regulation with and without the UK' 40 (5) Fordham International Law Journal (2017) 1335
- 'Extracting the UK from EU Financial Services Governance: Regulatory Recasting or Shadowing from a Distance?' in M Dougan (ed), The UK after Brexit. Legal and Policy Challenges (Intersentia, 2017) 135
- 'Brexit, the EU and its Investment Banker: Rethinking ‘Equivalence’ for the EU Capital Market'LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 05/2017
- 'Negotiating a Financial Services Deal'LSE Law Policy Briefing: Brexit Special Issue 25/2017
- 'EU Financial Governance and Brexit: Institutional Change or Business as Usual?' 42(1) European Law Review (2017) 112
- 'The EU in Global Financial Governance' 3 (1) Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (2017) 138-152
- 'EU Financial Governance and Trading Transparency Regulation: A Test Case for the Effectiveness of Post Crisis Administrative Governance' in D Busch and G Ferrarini (eds), Regulation of EU Financial Markets: MiFID II (Oxford University Press, 2017) 315
- 'International Financial Governance, the EU, and Brexit: the "agencification" of EU financial governance and the implications' (2016) 17 European Business Organization Law Review 451
- 'The 2013 Capital Requirements Directive IV and Capital Requirements Regulation: Implications and Institutional Effects' Zeitschrift fur Offentliches Recht (Austrian Journal of Public and International Law) (2016) 385
- 'Institutional Governance and Capital Markets Union: Incrementalism or a 'Big Bang'?' (2016) European Company and Financial Law Review 13(2) 376
- 'Financial Services, the EU, and Brexit: An Uncertain Future for the City?' (2016) 17 German Law Journal 75, Brexit Supplement
- 'Capital Markets Union: Ever Closer Union for the EU Financial System?' (2016) 3 European Law Review 307
- 'Conduct Rules and Investor Protection: The Evolution of the EU’s Approach' in M Casper, L Klöhn, W-H Roth and C Schmies, Festschrift für Johannes Köndgen (RWS, 2016) 397
- ‘Banking Union and the Implications for Financial Market Governance in the EU: Convergence or Divergence?’ in D Busch and G Ferrarini (eds), European Banking Union (OUP, 2015) 524
- ‘Financial Market Governance and Consumer Protection in the EU’ in E Faia, A Hackenthal, M Haliassos, and K Langenbucher (eds), Financial Regulation A Transatlantic Perspective (CUP, 2015) 221
- ‘Regulating the Retail Markets’ in N Moloney, E Ferran, and J Payne (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (OUP, 2015) 736
- ‘Financial Market Regulation’ in A Arnull and D Chalmers (eds), The Oxford Handbook of EU Law (OUP, 2015) 757
- 'European Banking Union: Assessing its Risks and Resilience' (2014) 51 Common Market Law Review 1609
- 'I. Resetting the Location of Regulatory and Supervisory Control over EU Financial Markets: Lessons from Five Years On'International and Comparative Legal Quartery, 62 (4) (2013), pp.955-965
- 'The European Securities and Markets Authority: A Perspective from One Year On' 68 Zeitschrift fur Offentliches Recht (Austrian Journal of Public and International Law) (2013) 59
- ‘Reshaping Order Execution in the EU and the Role of Interest Groups: From MiFID I to MiFID II’ 13 European Business Organization Law Review (2012) 557 (with G Ferrarini)
- ‘Supervision in the Wake of the Financial Crisis: Achieving Effective ’Law in Action’ - A Challenge for the EU’ in E. Wymeersch, K. Hopt and G. Ferrarini, Financial Regulation and Supervision. A Post Crisis Analysis (OUP, 2012), 71
- ‘Guest Editorial: MiFID II - Reshaping the Perimeter of EU Trading Market Regulation’ 6 Law and Financial Markets Review (2012) 327
- ‘The Liability of Asset Managers: A Comment’ 7 Capital Markets Law Journal(2012)
- 'The EU and Executive Pay: Managing Harmonization Risks’ in R Thomas and J Hill (eds), Research Handbook on Executive Pay (Elgar, 2012), 466.
- ‘The Investor Model Underlying the EU’s Investor Protection Regime: Consumers or Investors?’ 13 European Business Organization Law Review (2012) 169.
- ‘The December 2011 Veto and UK Financial Market Regulation’ 27 Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law (2012) 211
- 'Reform or Revolution? The Financial Crisis, EU Financial Markets Law and the European Securities and Markets Authority' 60 (2) International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2011) 521
- 'The European Securities and Markets Authority and Institutional Design for the EU Financial Market - a Tale of Two Competences: Part (2) Rules in Action' 12(2) European Business Organization Law Review (2011) 177
- 'The European Securities and Market Authority and Institutional Design for the EU Financial Markets – a Tale of Two Competences: Part (1) Rule-Making'12 (1) European Business Organization Law Review (2011) 41
- 'Regulating the Retail Markets: Law, Policy, and the Financial Crisis' in O Cinneide and Letsas eds, Current Legal Problems (OUP, 2010, volume 63) 375
- 'EU Financial Market Regulation after the Global Financial Crisis: "More Europe" or more Risks?' 47 (5) Common Market Law Review (2010) 1317
- 'The Financial Crisis and EU Securities Law-Making : A Challenge Met?' in Grundmann et al. (eds) Festschrift fur Klaus J Hopt zum 70 Geburstag (Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2010) 2265
- 'Financial Services and Markets' in Baldwin, Cave and Lodge (eds), The Oxford Handbook on Regulation (OUP, 2010) 437
- ‘Regulating Retail Investment Products: The Crisis and the EU Challenge' 11 ERA Forum 329 (2010)
- ‘Executive Remuneration in Crisis: A Critical Assessment of Reform in Europe’ 10Journal of Corporate Law Studies (2010) 73 (with G Ferrarini and M C Ungureanu)
- 'The Committee of European Securities Regulators and Level 3 of the Lamfalussy Process' in Tison, de Wulf, van der Elst, and Steennot (eds), Perspectives in Company Law and Financial Regulation (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 449
- 'Regulation of the Markets and Intermediaries: Global Comparison and Contrast - What is Best Practice' 5 Macquarie Journal of Business Law (2008) 26
- 'Reforming Investor Protection: Lessons from the European Union's Reform Agenda' 4 Macquarie Journal of Business Law (2007) 147
- 'Innovation and Risk in EC Financial Market Regulation After the Financial Services Action Plan: New Instruments of Financial Market Intervention and the Committee of European Securities Regulators' 32 European Law Review (2007) 627
- 'EC Company Law' (Oxford University Press, 2007) in D Vaughan and A Robertson (eds), Law of the European Union (Oxford University Press), para 20.1 – para 20.1215
- 'Law Making Risks in EC Financial Market Regulation After the Financial Services Action Plan' in S Weatherill (ed), Better Regulation (Hart Publishing, 2007) 367
- 'TransAtlantic Financial Services Dialogue' 7(4) European Business Organisation Law Review (2006) 647 (with Dr Kern Alexander, Professor Eilís Ferran, and Professor Howell Jackson); also published in the Harvard Law School, Olin Center Faculty Discussion Paper Series, No 1/2007
- 'Financial Market Regulation in the post Financial Services Action Plan Era' 55 (4) International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2006) pp982-992
- 'Effective Policy Design for the Retail Investment Services Market: Challenges and Choices Post FSAP' in G Ferrarini and E Wymeersch (eds), Investor Protection in Europe: Corporate Law Making, the MiFID and Beyond(Oxford University Press, 2006) 381
- 'The EC and the Hedge Fund Challenge: A Test Case for EC Securities Policy After the Financial Services Action Plan' 6(1) Journal of Corporate Law Studies (2006) 1
- 'Executive Remuneration in the EU: the Context for Reform' 21 Oxford Review of Economic Policy (2005) 304 (with Professor Guido Ferrarini); also published in the European Corporate Governance Institute Working Paper Series, No. 32/2005
- 'Building a Retail Investment Culture Through Law: The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive' 6(3) European Business Organisations Law Review (2005) 341
- 'Time to take Stock on the Markets' 53 (4) International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2004) pp999-1012
- 'Executive Pay: Convergence in Law and Practice Across the EU Corporate Governance Faultline' 4 (2) Journal of Corporate Law Studies (2004) 243 (with Professor Guido Ferrarini and Cristina Vespro)
- 'Shareholder Democracy and the Audit Process: TransAtlantic Perspectives Post Enron' 5 (2) European Business Organisations Law Review (2004) 223 (with Professor Anita Anand)
- 'Confidence and Competence: the Conundrum of EC Capital Markets Law' 4(1) Journal of Corporate Law Studies (2004) 1
- 'Executive Remuneration in Europe: Convergence, Divergence and Reform' (with Professor Guido Ferrarini) in G Ferrarini, K Hopt, J Winter, and E Wymeersch (eds), Reforming Company and Takeover Law in Europe (Oxford University Press, 2004) 267
- 'New Frontiers in EC Capital Markets Law: From Market Construction to Market Regulation' 40 Common Market Law Review (2003) 809
- 'Investor Protection and the Treaty: an Uneasy Relationship' in G Ferrarini, K Hopt, and E Wymeersch (eds), Capital Markets in the Age of the Euro. Cross-border Transactions, Listed Companies and Regulation (Kluwer Law International, 2002) 17-61
- 'The Regulation of Investment Services in the Single Market: The Emergence of a New Regulatory Landscape' 3 European Business Organisations Law Review (2002) 293
Teaching
Engagement and impact
Engagement and Impact
Niamh currently serves as an External Member of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Committee. Previously, Niamh served as an independent, non-executive director of the board of the Central Bank of Ireland. She was Chair of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, established by the government of Ireland in 2021 to review the state’s taxation and welfare systems, which reported in 2022 (Foundations for the Future). Niamh has also served as an alternate member of the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities.
Niamh’s previous public service includes member and Chair, Consumer Advisory Group, Central Bank of Ireland and member, inaugural and second Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). She was Special Adviser to the 2014-2015 inquiry by the UK Parliament House of Lords EU Select Committee into the EU’s regulatory response to the financial crisis. Niamh also served as a member of the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s advisory Financial Services Consumer Panel and has acted as an expert witness for UK Parliament Select Committee and European Parliament inquiries on financial market regulation.