MyComplianceOffice Blog

Employees who work at firms in the financial services industry are privy to sensitive information of all kinds. There are many ways for employees to abuse this information beyond garden-variety insider trading. As the ways bad actors can misuse information and manipulate the market getincreasingly sophisticated, the need for equally sophisticated compliance technology to keep up continues to grow.  

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has released its 2025 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report, providing crucial insights into the regulatory landscape for member firms. This year's report covers a broad range of topics, including some new areas of focus plus perennial areas of regulatory concern.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has released new guidelines for market sounding (Guidelines), which will come into effect on 02 May 2025. Firms carrying out market soundings in Hong Kong need to be aware of the actions and regulatory takeaways contained within these guidelines.

A recent case in Hong Kong has sent a clear signal to financial firms about the dangers of failing to manage material non-public information (MNPI) effectively. The Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT) ordered the wife of a chauffeur to disgorge $106,968 in illicit profit gained from the insider dealing activity.

Failing to adequately manage Material Non-Public Information (MNPI) remains a high-risk area for compliance, as evidenced by recent actions in the United States, the United Kingdom and across the globe for issues including insufficient insider trading compliance policies, market abuse and failure to effectively manage insider information.