HM Treasury and FCA complete review of criminal market abuse regime

HM Treasury (HMT) and the FCA have published a joint statement on their review of the criminal market abuse regime.

The UK’s criminal sanctions for insider dealing and market manipulation are contained in the Criminal Justice Act 1993, and are separate from the civil sanctions that can be imposed for breaches of the UK Market Abuse Regulation (UK MAR).

The government committed to reviewing the UK’s criminal market abuse regime in its Economic Crime Plan 2019-22 published in July 2019.

Having completed the review, HMT and the FCA state that:

• they have identified a number of areas where the government believes it would be appropriate to update the criminal market abuse regime. These will be developed in parallel with the government’s acceptance of the recommendations of the Fair and Effective Markets Review in relation to wholesale markets, where the government plans to lay secondary legislation in 2023; and
• they will consider changes to the criminal market abuse regime alongside any reforms to UK MAR through the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) Review. As part of the FRF, the government intends to repeal UK MAR – which became part of retained EU law in the UK post-Brexit – through the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022-23 (read more on the Bill on our blog here) and replace it with UK-specific legislation.