On 14 February 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Market Watch 77. In this edition of Market Watch, the FCA shares its observations on trade by organised crime groups (OCGs) and how firms can mitigate the risks of being used to facilitate their trade. Trading by organised crime groups The FCA warns that suspicious … Continue Reading
On 30 January 2024, the FCA published Market Watch 76. In this edition of Market Watch, the FCA shares its observations about ‘flying’ and ‘printing’, and how firms can mitigate the risks of misleading the market by their staff engaging in such behaviours. ‘Flying’ and ‘printing’ As the FCA had previously explained in Market Watch … Continue Reading
On 19 December 2023, the FCA published Primary Market Bulletin 46, which focuses on Article 10 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) stewardship, as well as sponsor procedures in relation to the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)-aligned disclosure requirements. Article 10 MAR and ESG stewardship In Primary … Continue Reading
Summary On 17 November 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it has censured the holding company of the largest private healthcare operator in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), NMC Health Plc (in administration) (NMC), for misleading the market about its debt, and failing to declare related party transactions, which was found to be … Continue Reading
On 31 October 2023, the FCA published Market Watch 75. In this edition of Market Watch, the FCA shares its observations about market soundings since it published Market Watch 51 and 58. It also reminds firms of the arrangements made by the UK Market Abuse Regulation’s market soundings regime, which provides formalised arrangements for issuers, … Continue Reading
On 27 September 2023, the City of London Corporation and the FCA announced the launch of an authorised push payment (APP) synthetic dataset to develop products and services that can minimise fraud. The dataset will be hosted on the FCA’s permanent Digital Sandbox and provides a foundation to better understand how useful data could be … Continue Reading
On 6 September 2023, the FCA published a speech delivered by Sarah Pritchard, Executive Director of Markets and International, at the Financial Crime Summit 2023. The speech addresses calibrating controls to build confident markets. In her speech, Ms Pritchard makes the following remarks:… Continue Reading
On 17 July 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on Suspicious Transactions and Order Reports (STORs). The report provides an overview of how STORs are used across different Member States in the context of the detection and investigation of market abuse, and how their use has evolved over time. The … Continue Reading
On 26 May 2023, there was published on the legislation.gov.uk website, The Insider Dealing (Securities and Regulated Markets) Order 2023. This Order updates Schedule 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 (CJA), bringing securities and markets on which an offence can be committed in the CJA broadly in line with the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). … Continue Reading
Recently, the FCA published Market Watch 73 which covered the regulator’s market abuse peer review into firms that offer contracts for difference (CfDs) and spread bets. The Market Watch followed the FCA’s earlier Dear CEO letter which was published last December which highlighted the FCA’s expectations of firms offering CfDs (including in relation to the … Continue Reading
On 26 April 2023, the FCA published Market Watch 73. In this Market Watch, the FCA discusses the observations and findings from its recent market abuse peer review into firms that offer Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and spread bets, both of which are particularly vulnerable to being used for insider dealing due to the speculative … Continue Reading
On 17 April 2023, HM Treasury published a draft of the Insider Dealing (Securities and Regulated Markets) Order 2023, (the draft statutory instrument (SII)), along with a draft explanatory memorandum. The SI updates Schedule 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 (CJA) bringing the securities and markets on which an offence can be committed in … Continue Reading
On 24 March 2023, HM Treasury and the FCA issued a statement providing an update on the criminal market abuse regime (the regime). In the Economic Crime Plan 2019-22, the government and FCA committed to jointly reviewing the regime within the wider context of the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) Review. The statement provides that the … Continue Reading
On 20 March 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a letter, addressed to the European Parliament and Council, raising concerns over proposed changes to the insider list regime in the Market Abuse Regulation. The proposed changes, put forward by the European Commission (Commission) in December 2022 as part of the Listings Act … Continue Reading
Demonstrating its continuing focus on preventing, detecting and punishing market abuse, on 25th January 2023, the FCA announced that it has commenced criminal proceedings against five individuals, alleging that they conspired to commit offences of insider dealing between December 2019 and March 2021. In addition to insider dealing, the five individuals are charged with money … Continue Reading
On 11 January 2023, the FCA published Market Watch 72. In this Market Watch, the FCA outlines their recent findings on the quality of service provided by Approved Publication Arrangements and Approved Reporting Mechanisms, collectively known as Data Reporting Services Providers (DRSPs), to clients who use a DRSP to meet their MiFID II regulatory reporting … Continue Reading
On 13 December 2022, the FCA published Market Watch 71. In Market Watch 71, the FCA shares their observations about changes in advisory firms’ insider lists since the publication of Market Watch 60. The FCA also reminds firms of the requirement within UK Market Abuse Regulation (UK MAR) to include personal information in insider lists, … Continue Reading
On 24 November 2022, the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) announced that it has updated its REMIT data reporting guidance. Following extensive consultation with stakeholders launched in June 2022 that aimed to improve REMIT data reporting, ACER had published: The updated Transaction Reporting User Manual (TRUM) and its annexes. The … Continue Reading
On 18 November 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on the administrative and criminal sanctions and other administrative measures imposed under the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) in 2021. Article 33 of MAR obliges ESMA to publish an annual report with aggregated information of all penalties and measures imposed by Member … Continue Reading
On 18 October 2022, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced that they are strengthening their cooperation to further improve information exchange and avoid potential market abuse in Europe’s spot and derivative markets. Henceforth, ACER and ESMA have announced the following: New joint … Continue Reading
On 18 October 2022, there was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1959 of 13 July 2022 supplementing the Market Abuse Regulation with regards to regulatory technical standards setting out a contractual template for liquidity contracts for the shares of issuers whose financial instruments are admitted to … Continue Reading
The FCA has recently fined Sir Christopher Gent, former non-executive Chairman of a global medical products and technologies company (the Company), £80,000 for the unlawful disclosure of inside information relating to the Company in contravention of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU MAR). The published decision contains a number of key takeaways in relation to … Continue Reading
On 3 October 2022, the FCA published Market Watch 70. Market Watch is the FCA’s newsletter on market conduct and transaction reporting issues. In this issue the FCA outlines some of its recent observations on the transaction reporting and instrument reference data regimes. Key points in this issue of Market Watch include: National identifiers. The … Continue Reading
On 23 September 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated their Q&As on the Market Abuse Regulation. The following have been updated under the section concerning the disclosure of inside information: 5.11 Financial guidance and disclosure of inside information. 5.12 Market analysts’ expectations and the identification of inside information.… Continue Reading