Criminal market abuse regime review completion

On March 24, 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA, published a press release to announce that the FCA itself and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have concluded their review of the existing „criminal market abuse regime“ in UK. In an accompanying Policy Paper, the two regulators state that they have now concluded the review of the regime which specifies the „criminal sanctions“ that will be imposed upon financial market players for participating in insider trading and / or market manipulation. During their review, so the two regulators, they found areas for improvement, where an update is desirable particularly in view of the fact that the regime hasn’t been materially renewed since its onset. Those findings are in line with the recommendations of the Fair and Effective Markets Review (FEMR) on same issue based upon which the government will take legislative action in 2023.
The regulators conclude by noting that the review „has been undertaken within the wider context of regulatory reforms in financial services, known as the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) Review, which was initiated by the UK government to ensure that the UK legislative environment is fit for purpose following the exit from the European Union. Part of this initiative is also the replacement of all EU-retained laws with UK legislation that suits the needs of the UK financial market – the retained Market Abuse Regulation is one of such legal acts.