Updates & insights

On July 16th, ACER published details of its public consultation on the definition of inside information, itself a critical part of the operation and enforcement of REMIT. At the same time, ACER published V4 of its Guidance of the application of REMIT, which contains additional information on how the obligation

With less than a year to go to the start of the SFTR reporting obligations, it is essential that companies do not get complacent regarding the state of their preparations. ESMA’s Steven Maijoor’s recent Madrid speech repeated the message that improving data availability and quality is at the forefront of

A Buy-side Backlash Against Algo-trading? MiFID II has much to say on the organisational requirements governing investment firms engaging in algorithmic trading. Indeed, NCAs are starting to address the general strategic issues that big data (BD), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) raise regarding the integrity of their markets.

ESMA issues new Opinion on Energy and Commodity Market Sizes On 27th May 2019, ESMA published its latest Opinion on the overall market sizes of the range of energy, commodity, and emissions asset classes as defined under MiFID II.  Overall market size is a key input into the Ancillary Activity

SFTR – A Look at the Data Management Issues – Part 2 Required Data On 22nd March 2019, the EU published the SFTR implementing regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union. Publication confirms the start-dates of transaction reporting for investment and non-financial companies. Data managers have a number

SFTR – A Look at the Data Management Issues – Part 1 The Basics On 22nd March 2019, the EU published the SFTR implementing regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union. Publication confirms the start-dates of transaction reporting for investment and non-financial companies. Data managers have a number

Update on Market Abuse Under REMIT At the beginning of the year we predicted that a greater focus on market abuse would be one of the key regulatory themes of 2019.  ACER has recently published the latest in a series of Guidance Notes on the application of REMIT Article 5

Beware of Relying on ‘Industry Standards’ Surveillance System Calibration – Beware of Relying on ‘Industry Standards’ The FCA has been openly critical of surveillance system calibration and configuration. They disapprove of market participants’ tendency to implement vendor-supplied systems using ‘out of the box’ and ‘industry standard’ settings to calibrate their

Do compliance managers need to worry about new security loopholes caused by process and system weaknesses hiding in plain sight? Not if they take some basic precautions. Film and TV sometimes touch on ‘white collar’ financial crime. UK ITV’s latest drama, ‘Cleaning Up’, covers insider trading, but from an original

ESMA published six opinions on position limits regarding commodity derivatives under MiFID II/MIFIR. These confirm the position limits proposed by the governing NCas, so market participants can now set their trading, position management, and surveillance systems accordingly.

After 2018’s rush to introduce compliance with new regulations such as MiFID II and GDPR, what will 2019 bring for compliance and IT systems managers? Probably the end of any ‘amnesty’ period for poor compliance, and greater focus on tackling algorithmic trading and market abuse.

It could be, depending upon the jurisdiction you trade in and how far your regulator is prepared to go to enforce their interpretation of the law. ‘Common sense’ may not be enough to head off litigation. Is it Illegal to be Smarter than your Counterparties? No, at least not in

With the regulatory focus firmly on deterring market abuse, new exemplars of manipulation are being defined for market participants to detect. Can your surveillance system be easily configured to pick up these new cases?