Adrian Guest has been appointed to the position of Sales Manager EMEA within b-next, who provide Market Abuse Surveillance and Insider dealing software, Martin Porter has also been appointed to the position of Business Development Director.

Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee discussed draft EU legislation on market abuse on Monday, the MEP’s debated definitions of insider trading and the proper monitoring and punishment of market abuse. This comes as a result of the problems thrown up by the financial crisis and aims to create unified criminal and administrative penalties throughout EU member states. This is of particular note with relation to cross border regulations necessary as a result of the increased integration of EU markets. The sanctions and regulations considered are as follows: market players undeterred by sanctions to be excluded from the markets, real time cross border surveillance, whistle blowing, consideration of high frequency trading. Draft report due 26th March, amendment deadline, 24 April, committee vote July

The Treasury has announced an expansion of insider trading regulations in the draft Financial Markets bill to replace the Securities Services Act. Regulations will now consider a broker knowingly dealing on behalf of someone with insider information to be an offence. They will also define manipulation trading to include circumstances where people engage in activity which they suspect is aimed at manipulating share prices. The changes further tighten regulations by removing some of the ‘outdated’ defences from current law. JSE CEO Nicky Newton-King has welcomed the adjustments.

OFT has completed a market study of extended warranties which highlighted competition concerns in the £1 billion per year extended warranties market. Dixons, Comet and Argos, the largest retail providers of extended warranties, have offered legal undertakings to improve the way that the market works. OFT is now consulting on whether to accept these undertakings, which include improving information provided to consumer and launching a comparison website, instead of referring the market to the Competition Commission for a detailed investigation OFT’s market study found that, despite some improvements in the market including some lower prices, several competition concerns remain. OFT especially highlights retailers’ “point of sale” advantage when selling warranties; the fact that consumers do not have enough relevant information to make an informed decision about whether the extended warranty is value for money at the time they buy the warranty and issues surrounding “pay as you go” warranties where consumers pay for a rolling monthly contract, which can be much more expensive than comparable fixed term warranties. Responses to the consultation on the undertakings (at Annexe B of the market study) are required by 7 March 2012.

Text of the above speech, given at the European Parliament/EC (DG-Health and Consumers) event, follows. He discusses ESMA’s approach to consumer protection in light of MIFID II/MIFIR, UCITS IV and work on ETFs.

Topics include: UK regulatory changes; compliance monitoring; treatment of customers in financial difficulties; debt sale and debt collection; repayment plans and payment protection products.

Produced an article on David Einhorn and his company Greenlight capital who have been fined for insider trading by the FSA. This discusses the difference between the issue of ‘did they know’ and ‘should they know’. Identifies the difference between US policy where Einhorn’s request not to receive insider information would have prevented his prosecution for insider trading, as compared with UK law. The FSA remarked “We expect someone in his position to be able to identify inside information when he receives it and act appropriately. His failure to do so is a serious breach of the expected standards of market conduct."The FSA sent a strong message to those active in the financial markets by fining Greenlight and Einhorn £7.2 million.

Peter Binning discusses the implications of the Einhorn Case. He sees the case as indicative of tightening regulations by the FSA. He warns that market participants must ‘join the dots carefully’, or in other words, take stock of all the relevant information; for instance consulting legal advice which David Einhorn failed to do, resulting in the FSA’s adverse market abuse findings.

Discusses the technicalities of the case; focusing particularly on the fact that Einhorn did not take ‘reasonable caution’ to prevent insider dealing. Macfarlanes identifies the case as being of note to three main sectors, brokers, fund managers and research analysts. They stress that the case is a cautionary warning particularly that ‘improper disclosure of information’ is also considered insider trading by the FSA and that the totality of evidence, the substance and context should be considered by market participants before acting upon information.

FSA has published this consumer research paper re the above, which was contains results from the 2011 FSA Consumer Awareness Survey. Among the findings: one in three people, overall, thinks that the main responsibility of a financial watchdog should be to ensure that firms treat their customers fairly; one in four thinks that it is to prevent misselling and one in six believes that a financial watchdog should ensure that only appropriate people or firms can operate in the market, and one in ten thinks that such an organisation prosecutes firms and inpiduals. Of those surveyed, 60% are confident that FSA effectively regulates the financial services industry, but only 5% are very confident that it does so. Nearly one in five people are unconfident (confidence has returned after a low of 38% in 2009).