Should MAR be scaled back?

Author: | Published: 3 Jan 2018

By Olly Jackson, EMEA reporter

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has reported a 77% increase in suspicious transaction and order reports (STORs) since the Market Abuse Regulation’s (MAR) entry into force in July 2016. 

The implementation of new rules may have had a direct impact on the huge uptick in the reporting of issues such as insider dealing and market manipulation, leading many market participants to label the new rules as too punitive.    

Most of the legal definitions under MAR remain the same as before - under the 2003 Market Abuse Directive (MAD) - but the regulation has widened the scope of firms that must comply with the new rules. The scope of the reporting regime applies to the cancellation, modification, placing and execution of orders and transactions, and to attempted market abuse. The framework applies to all trading venue operators and any person professionally arranging or executing transactions -...