MAR’s new level of regulatory expectations

With much of the impetus for the Market Abuse Regulation coming from the UK, it seems unlikely to undergo change as a result of Brexit. Ronald Gould highlights main challenges of the regime.

Ronald Gould is European chairman of Compliance Science, which provides governance, risk management and compliance solutions. He has formerly served as a senior advisor to the UK Financial Services Authority.

While market abuse has been the focus of a number of regulations in a wide variety of jurisdictions for many years, the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) brings expected standards of behaviour in this area to a much higher level than ever before. It will strengthen the existing UK market abuse framework by extending its scope to new markets, new platforms and new behaviours. It contains prohibitions for insider dealing and market manipulation, along with provisions to prevent and detect these. MAR came into force on 3 July 2016.