ESMA publishes Report on Suspicious Transactions and Order Reports

ESMA has published a report on STORs related to market abuse. The report provides insights into how STORs are used across different jurisdictions for detecting and investigating market abuse, and how their usage has evolved over time. The report mainly covers data from 2021 and 2022.
Key findings from the report:
– The total number of notifications received by NCAs in 2021 was 7,434, comprising 6,125 STORs and 1,309 other notifications. In 2022, NCAs received 6,846 notifications, including 5,833 STORs and 1,013 other notifications.
– Germany received the highest number of notifications in both years, accounting for more than 40% of the total, followed by France, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
– Investment firms submitted the majority of notifications (73% in 2021 and 74% in 2022), while other notifications came from reporting entities like Regulated Markets, Multilateral Trading Facilities, and Organized Trading Facilities.
– The most common instrument type involved in notifications was shares (87% in both years), followed by bonds (around 7% in both years).
– Market manipulation was the most frequently reported type of violation (52% in both years), followed by insider trading (45% in 2021 and 44% in 2022).
– The number of STORs significantly decreased after 2018 due to the impact of Brexit, as the UK accounted for a significant portion of STORs received in previous years.