The EU’s Market Abuse Regulation, effective since 2016, prohibits insider dealing, unlawful disclosure of inside information and market manipulation. It also imposes announcement obligations on issuers with shares and other financial instruments traded on EU trading venues, and disclosure requirements on the managers of those issuers. MAR was ‘onshored’ into UK law during the Brexit process. The UK therefore currently has a near-identical, parallel framework. MAR is mainly relevant to PE/VC firms’ dealings with instruments admitted to ozrganised trading venues such as listed stocks or bonds.
MAR changed the previous rules in a number of important ways: a wider range of financial instruments are now caught by the new regime; a formal regime for market soundings has been introduced; the safe harbour from insider dealing in relation to a takeover offer has been narrowed; the dealing disclosures required from persons discharging managerial responsibilities for an issuer have been widened; and firms are now subject to wider obligations to monitor and report suspicious transactions.
Further information on the impact of MAR and our advocacy in this area is available in the Technical Bulletin and industry submissions below.
