On 25 February 2016, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a brochure for organisations active in the public domain which are not listed, but may nevertheless possess information which qualifies as inside information (voorwetenschap). This includes organisations such as courts, central banks, competition authorities, trade unions and regulatory authorities. These organisations may be dealing with inside information if, by way of example, they intend to sanction a listed company, approve an acquisition by/of a listed company or grant a licence.

The AFM’s brochure contains recommendations for such organisations and provides guidance on how to avoid (unintentionally) distributing insider information. The recommendations made by the AFM include, among other things, that:

• awareness should be raised within their organisations that certain information could qualify as inside information;
• internal organisational measures should be taken, such as requiring employees dealing with inside information to sign a non-disclosure agreement, making insider lists for each case, keeping the number of persons dealing with inside information as limited as possible and using so-called Chinese walls; and
• IT-systems should be designed in such a way that only authorised persons are able to access inside information and sufficient security measures should be taken.

View the AFM’s news item on the brochure (Dutch Only), 25 February 2016.

View the AFM’s brochure (Dutch Only), 25 February 2016.