
FSA takes tougher stance on market abuse
Daily news headlines
LONDON – The UK Financial Services Authority has again reiterated its intention to beef up enforcement of market abuse rules to maintain clean financial markets in London.
“Clean markets are vital to the continuing success of London as an international financial centre,” said Sally Dewar, managing director of wholesale and institutional markets at the FSA, in the introduction to the newsletter. “Market misconduct, particularly in the form of insider dealing and market manipulation is, put simply, cheating and reduces investor confidence in the UK markets. Our aim is to have a regime that achieves 'credible deterrence' and ensures a level of market quality we can all be proud of.”
Part of this “credible deterrence” involves visits to firms by the FSA’s market conduct teams to assess systems and controls. The FSA will subsequently publish details of any weakness in its Market Watch newsletters. These visits, introduced in response to the market rumours that circulated about HBOS in March 2008, are intended to supplement existing firm-specific risk assessment visits.
Dewar also reiterates that senior management must take responsibility to identify risks, conflicts of interests and develop appropriate systems and controls. If senior management can demonstrate it has taken all necessary steps to protect against market abuse, the FSA will only prosecute the individual concerned, not the firm. However, “where we believe firms’ systems and controls are not meeting our standards, we will consider enforcement action – even if those firms themselves have not necessarily committed market abuse”, Dewar said.
Also following the false market rumours in March, the FSA is working to deepen its understanding of the policies financial institutions have in place to guard against malicious or false rumours, to consider whether further guidance is needed.
The newsletter also details work undertaken to prevent insider dealing, in particular the mergers and acquisitions project commenced in 2007, advances in detection techniques and obtaining market intelligence, and tools available to the FSA when investigating market abuse.
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@risk.net or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.risk.net/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@risk.net to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@risk.net to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Printing this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@risk.net
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Copying this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@risk.net
More on Regulation
SEC expected to protect CRT in conflicts of interest rule
Decision could come as early as today; high hopes for credit risk transfer exemption
FRTB managers face hard facts about risk factors
There are ways to reduce the capital charges caused by NMRFs, but they come at a price
SEC official defends delayed dealer registration rule
Regulator says market should be treated like equities, but PTFs warn it will harm market liquidity
New UK clearing rules: same as the old rules?
Clearing experts doubt UK regulation can diverge significantly from Emir and global standards
SEC to delay US Treasury clearing mandate, dealer rule
A final vote on proposed US Treasury market reforms is now expected in early 2024
BoE warns against use of stablecoins in banking
Tokenised payment systems pose compliance and systemic risks, regulator says
Industry unsure of SEC’s new short-selling transparency rule
Requirement aims to provide sufficient transparency while protecting traders from a GameStop-style backlash
EC to adopt NII outlier test within ‘weeks’
New IRRBB rules could come into force in early 2024; industry hoping EBA draft is softened