On 17 July 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on suspicious transaction and order reports (STORs).

Similar to the report published last summer, the report aims at providing the market with a clear overview over the use of STORs in different jurisdictions across the EU and how this has evolved over time.

The report focuses mainly on 2023 and notes in particular:

  • All 30 EEA Member State competent authorities (NCAs) responded to the survey. The figures gathered by ESMA show that the number of notifications, including STORs plus other notifications increased by 9% increase from 2022 to 2023 (7,491 vs 6,846).
  • As in previous years, most of the notifications received originated from investment firms.
  • In 2023, Germany is the country that received most notifications, followed by France.
  • In 2023, the great majority of notifications concerned shares, followed by bonds and derivatives.
  • A slight majority of notifications covered cases of alleged insider trading which accounted for 51% of the total in 2023. This represents a slight change compared to previous years where in most cases reports were sent for cases of alleged market manipulation (52% across the last four years).
  • When NCAs forwarded the received STORs to another authority, the great majority of them were sent to other NCAs, and the number of STORs sent to third-country authorities has increased when compared with previous years. Similarly, NCAs received most of the notifications from other NCAs but at the same time the portion of those received from third-country competent authorities is rather consistent.