FCA speaks on market abuse

Therese Chambers, FCA joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight – has delivered a speech on the FCA’s agenda for combatting market abuse, at the City and Financial Global Market Abuse and Market Manipulation Summit.

The speech highlights the FCA’s recently published 2025 – 2030 strategy, which focusses in part on combatting financial crime. In summary, it is aiming to understand more across more markets, work to stop market abuse before it happens, and punish and deter offenders. To this end, the FCA is adopting the “three Ps” approach, to be: predictable, proportionate and purposeful.

The FCA outlined the following priorities:

• focussing on organised crime groups, which is identified as the most serious threat to market integrity, accounting for around 25% of all Suspicious Transaction & Order Reports;
• the landscape of market abuse is developing, with new concerns relating to strategic leaks and unlawful disclosures, where companies might leak information to influence share prices – the FCA notes that mergers and acquisitions are often reported in the press before the news reaches Regulatory Information Services;
• increased efforts in Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities, including an investigation into three bond traders for alleged manipulation of Italian government bond futures, which resulted in bans and fines;
• strengthening international engagement and strategy.