MyComplianceOffice Blog

In a virtual conference, Julia Hoggart, Director of Market Oversight at the FCA discusses the challenges posed by the pandemic and highlights that at this stage firms should have overcome these challenges, improved surveillance and risk assessments. The speech is an indication as to where the FCA may focus their attention during the rest of this year and into 2021.

On September 23rd, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a set of outcomes and recommendations on the Market Abuse Regulation. The report has the objective to review the functionalities of MAR since its implementation in 2016 and draft suggestions to improve the regulation. The report is based on a 2019 consultation and covers buy-back programmes, the delayed disclosure of inside information, the usefulness of insider lists, managers’ transactions, the retention period of personal data among other topics.

With the increased challenges for financial Control Rooms, global regulators continue to pressure firms concerning the flow of confidential information. To manage the flow on confidential information and implement an effective risk control, firms are expected to continue working on the modernization of regulatory, legal and compliance risk management programs. These modern programmes in addition to effective technology can ensure that material non-public information (MNPI) is only available to staff as and when required and does not leak to other parties.

Sweden’s financial supervisory authority is investigating Swedbank for suspected breaches of market-abuse regulations.

The most recent FCA  newsletter on market conduct and transaction reporting issues, Market Watch 65, covers how the inappropriate handling of information requirements can compromise market abuse investigations. In addition, the document highlights data quality issues found on transaction reporting under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation.