MyComplianceOffice Blog

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.

Insider dealing is a perennial concern for regulators around the globe. Agencies like the SEC, the FCA, BaFin and the AMF are using the latest technology to detect insider trading, misuse of insider information and market abuse. Regulators increasingly expect as well that firms will have the latest technology in place in order to demonstrate that they are taking a comprehensive and proactive approach to managing access to insider information and employee personal account dealing compliance.