‘The most valuable commodity I know of is information’
| Date | 01 December 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13581980510635555 |
| Published date | 01 December 2005 |
| Pages | 324-332 |
| Author | Richard Burger,George Davies |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
‘The most valuable commodity I know of is
information’
Richard Burger
a
and George Davies
b
a
Mills & Reeve, Francis House, 112 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1PH, UK; tel: +44 (0)1223 222 567;
fax: +44 (0)1223 222 254; e-mail: richard.burger@mills-reeve.com.
b
The Chambers of Michael Gledhill QC, 2 Dyers Buildings, Holborn, London, EC1N 2JT UK; tel: +44
(0)207 4041881; fax: +44 (0)207 404 1991; e-mail:george.davies@2dyersbuildings.com
Richard Burger is a senior solicitor in the
regulatory team of Mills & Reeve Solici-
tors. He specialises in regulatory investi-
gations and FSA compliance issues.
George Davies is a barrister at 2 Dyers
Buildings, the Chambers of Michael Gled-
hill QC. He specialises in work concerning
FSA investigations and related litigation.
Both Richard [Burger] and George
[Davies] are former FSA Enforcement Law-
yers and have been involved in statutory
investigations into market abuse.
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS: Capital markets, insider trad-
ing, financial reporting
This paper summarises the FSA’s enforcement
action taken to date under the market abuse
regime and considers how the implementation of
the Market Abuse Directive (‘MAD’) will
affect the work of city compliance officers. In
particular, this paper focuses on the new
requirement for the regulated sector to make sus-
picious transaction reports in respect of market
abusive behaviour as well as considering how
the newly revamped market abuse regime will
sit alongside the criminal offence of insider deal-
ing.
INTRODUCTION
In Oliver Stone’s 1987 film, Wall Street,
1
the unscrupulous corporate raider, Gordon
Gekko refers to information (preferably of
the undisclosed variety) as the ‘most valu-
able commodity’ he knows. Gekko goes
on to lure the ambitious young broker
Bud Fox to commit acts of insider dealing.
While Gekko and Fox are characters of fic-
tion, the power of insider information is
such that its misuse can attract severe regu-
latory sanctions from the FSA and in some
cases, criminal penalties.
On the 1
st
July 2005, with the enactment
of the Financial Services and Markets Act
2000 (Market Abuse) Regulations 2005
(‘the Regulations’), the scope and defini-
tions of market abuse have been widened.
In addition there are new compliance obli-
gations, in particular a requirement under
the FSA’s revised Supervision Manual
(SUP) for regulated firms to report suspi-
cious transactions amounting to market
abuse.
MARKET ABUSE DIRECTIVE (‘MAD’)
The Regulations partly implement Direc-
tive 2003/6/EC on insider dealing and
market manipulation, the Market Abuse
Directive (‘MAD’). MAD’s implementa-
tion into the UK will be a staged process.
The first stage is the introduction of the
Page 324
Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance Volume 13 Number 4
Journal of Financial Regulation
and Compliance, Vol. 13, No. 4,
2005, pp. 324–332
#Emerald Group Publishing
Limited, 1358–1988
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