A joint statement from HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today announced the government’s intention to repeal the European Union’s market abuse regulations and the civil market abuse regime, replacing them with UK-specific legislation.
The announcement follows the FCA’s completion of its Criminal Regime Review within the wider context of financial services regulatory reforms, known as the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF).
The FRF was established to determine how financial regulations should adapt to the UK’s post-Brexit status.
Specific details regarding how existing market abuse regulations will be replaced have not been disclosed, but the joint statement promised that “we will set out a timetable for this in due course”.
"The government committed to reviewing the criminal regime to ensure that the FCA can take action against market abuse in a way that is commensurate to the seriousness and market impact of the abusive behaviour," read the statement, adding that the review “has identified a number of areas where the government believes it would be appropriate to update the criminal regime”.
“It is a priority for us to raise standards across the firms we regulate, as market abuse harms confidence and integrity and hinders our work to build market excellence across the UK financial system,” said the FCA, which has the statutory objective of carrying out the proposed regulations.