Finantsinspektsioon carries out state supervision over investment firms, fund managers, and investment and pension funds that operate under licences it has issued, and over the crypto asset and securities markets. Finantsinspektsioon by law does not supervise small fund managers that are operating only with a registration.
Credit institutions are also active in investment, offering their clients investment products and access to financial markets. At the end of 2025, Finantsinspektsioon was supervising 12 fund managers, 73 funds, and seven investment firms.
Finantsinspektsioon monitors trading in securities and disclosure of information by listed companies in the regulated market of Nasdaq Tallinn and the First North alternative market. Finantsinspektsioon was monitoring 54 issuers of securities at the end of 2025.
Finantsinspektsioon inspected how the Market in Crypto-Assets Act was applied
Finantsinspektsioon inspected how market participants offering investment services applied the terms of the Market in Crypto-Assets Act. The inspection aimed to get a picture of the actions around the provision of crypto asset services, including how particular crypto assets were handled and the work of those market participants who do not plan to engage with crypto assets or whose plans are only evolving. The outcome was an outline of the market participants who are engaging in services relating to crypto assets. No shortcomings were found in the activities.
Finantsinspektsioon investigated the involvement of influencers in marketing investment services
Influencers are playing an increasing role in spreading information about investment, and so one focus for supervision at Finantsinspektsioon in 2025 was on finfluencers, or financial influencers, in investor protection terms, and particularly on clarifying their obligations and assessing their role in marketing work.
The European Securities and Markets Authority has also highlighted the risks from the activities of influencers.
Finantsinspektsioon inspected how market participants offering investment services worked with finfluencers. No shortcomings were found in the activities of the market participants that would have required additional supervisory involvement from Finantsinspektsioon. The market participants said they were considered and responsible in their use of influencers, focusing above all on increasing financial literacy and not on aggressive sales work.
Finantsinspektsioon held a roundtable for influencers to clarify the regulatory requirements, and started to define best practice for influencers. The discussions at the roundtable focused on the extent to which influencers can steer investment decisions, the legal restrictions and the risks they face, and the need for them to be aware and responsible in their actions. It emerged from the discussion that the influencers found the explanations given by Finantsinspektsioon to be very helpful to them in assessing their work and raising awareness among consumers.
Finantsinspektsioon monitored the provision of crowdfunding services
Finantsinspektsioon inspected a provider of crowdfunding services. It inspected how the provider of crowdfunding services assesses the credit risk of the projects and project owners that it intermediated, and how it meets the obligations for writing the key investment documents and presenting them to investors, and for the accuracy of the information in those documents. The inspection will continue in 2026.
Finantsinspektsioon assessed compliance with ESG requirements
Several financial intermediaries provide financial products and services that are described as having environmental, social and governance benefits or given the abbreviation ESG. Finantsinspektsioon looked at whether the information disclosed on such products and services meets the requirements for it, and whether the obligations for sustainability are met. No shortcomings were found with meeting the requirements.
Finantsinspektsioon also looked at whether the sustainable products make impact investments. Impact investments are an investment strategy that aims not only to earn a financial return, but also to have a quantifiable positive environmental or social impact. The inspection gathered information on whether fund managers with sustainable products made impact investments and what those investments were. The fund managers inspected do not follow a financial strategy of impact investment.
Finantsinspektsioon analysed information submitted on market abuse
The Securities Market Act requires Finantsinspektsioon to monitor transactions with financial instruments in places of trade to identify and move against possible criminal activity in the market. Securities brokers must inform Finantsinspektsioon of suspicious transactions and transaction orders. Professional participants in the Estonian securities market sent 54 reports of suspicious transactions and transaction orders in the securities market to Finantsinspektsioon in 2025. There was also a report of suspicion sent by a supervision authority in another country. Finantsinspektsioon sent a criminal complaint to the prosecutor about suspicions of abuse of inside information. Misdemeanour proceedings were not started, and Finantsinspektsioon only issued warnings to four individuals.
Finantsinspektsioon approved prospectuses for public offers
Finantsinspektsioon approved seven prospectuses in 2025 for non-equity securities, or bonds, including three from new issuers. No prospectuses for public offers or admission to trading of equity securities were approved. Two friendly takeovers were made during the year, with the result that trading in the shares of two issuers in the regulated market was ended.
Finantsinspektsioon monitored that issuers publish their reports correctly
Finantsinspektsioon observes that listed issuers publish financial reports at the correct time, and that the content of those reports complies with the requirements. It inspected the reports of three issuers in depth in 2025. The inspection assessed compliance with the international financial reporting standards (IFRS), the application of good corporate governance practice, compliance with the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF), the correctness of disclosures of alternative performance measures (APM), and for one issuer compliance with ESG requirements. Finantsinspektsioon did not find any issues that would have given grounds for further action, but it drew the attention of some issuers to minor shortcomings and requested that these be remedied in subsequent reports.
Finantsinspektsioon inspected the functioning of the risk controls at fund managers
Finantsinspektsioon made on-site inspections at two fund managers to assess the efficiency and independence of their risk control systems and the application and sufficiency of the organisational and technical measures needed for that function to work, and the organisation of risk controls in management bodies. The inspection identified issues needing attention within the risk control function of the fund managers. The main issues were that the risk control system was understaffed, the requirement to name a person as responsible for it was not met, requirements for approving and reviewing the internal rules regulating risk controls were not followed, and there were deficiencies in the reporting for risk control and the review of its work. Finantsinspektsioon highlighted these issues to the fund managers.
Finantsinspektsioon issued two new licences to fund managers
Finantsinspektsioon issued two new fund manager licences in 2025, one for managing an alternative fund, and the second an additional licence for operation as a eurofund manager. One fund manager gave up their licence and continued to operate in the market as a small fund manager operating without a licence.
Finantsinspektsioon issued a memo about offering closed-end index funds
Finantsinspektsioon sent fund managers a memo highlighting the obligation for fund documents and marketing materials to inform investors clearly and transparently about the investment policy and approaches of funds, including index tracking approaches. It also pointed out that using index tracking, even if only partly or under certain conditions, without declaring this in the key documents of the fund could be considered as misleading investors.
Finantsinspektsioon checked that the white papers for crypto asset tokens meet the requirements
The Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) started to apply in 2025 and requires all providers of crypto asset tokens operating in Estonia to submit a white paper for the tokens to Finantsinspektsioon. The white paper is an information document that resembles a prospectus and presents the project of the token and details of the offer to investors, and explains the rights, liabilities and risks of the token. Finantsinspektsioon’s task is to check that the white paper meets the terms of MiCA and inform ESMA and other institutions about this. Finantsinspektsioon was informed about ten white papers on offers of crypto asset tokens in 2025, of which three met the requirements.
Finantsinspektsioon assessed the risk culture of investment firms
Finantsinspektsioon assessed the awareness of risk culture at investment firms. The aim was to find out whether the investment firms have acted to address the bottlenecks identified in the analysis of 2023 and presented in a memo sent to them in 2024 and started to move towards instilling a more informed risk culture. The analysis showed that investment firms do not have a comprehensive understanding of the content and definition of risk culture, as indicated by their single-word descriptions of management organisation and risk management practices, and by deficiencies in their internal rules. Finantsinspektsioon drew the attention of market participants to this.
Finantsinspektsioon investigated how conflicts of interest are avoided at providers of crowdfunding services
Finantsinspektsioon assessed the rules of providers of crowdfunding services for avoiding and minimising conflicts of interest, and the internal organisation for handling conflicts of interest. The analysis found that although the providers of crowdfunding services have internal rules for identifying conflicts of interest, they are worded in general terms and the internal monitoring of conflicts of interest could be improved substantially. Finantsinspektsioon also drew the attention of market participants to shortcomings found during the inspection, and called for these to be remedied and for future activities to meet the requirements.
Finantsinspektsioon inspected how pension funds hold assets
Finantsinspektsioon ran remote inspections to ensure that the assets of pension funds exist and are held in accordance with the law. The inspection covered all of the mandatory pension funds of fund managers operating in the Estonian market. It found that the assets were held separately from the assets of the fund manager itself, and there were no major shortcomings.
