Commission consults on the review of the market abuse directive

28 June 2010

The revision of MAD is aimed at increasing coordination of action among national regulators and reduces the risk of regulatory arbitrage. ESMA should play a key role in enhancing a common approach by regulators and ensuring greater cooperation with other important jurisdictions outside the EU.

The Commission is reviewing the MAD regime to pursue the following key objectives:
·         Increase market integrity and investor protection by “filling the gaps” in coverage and modernising the legislative framework where needed as called for by the Commission Communication on Regulating Financial Services for Sustainable Growth6.
·         Strengthen effective enforcement against market abuse as called for by the Commission Communication on Driving European recovery.
·         Increase the cost-effectiveness of the legislation by reducing national discretions and introducing more harmonised standards, thereby moving closer to the objective of a single rulebook and reducing undue administrative burden, especially for SMEs.
·         Contribute to improving the transparency, supervisory oversight, safety and integrity of derivatives markets as laid out in the Commission
·         Increase coordination of action among national regulators and reduce the risk of regulatory arbitrage; ESMA should play a key role in enhancing a common approach by regulators as well as in ensuring greater cooperation with other important jurisdictions outside the EU, as laid out in the Commission Communication on European financial supervision.
 
The public consultation is grouped into three sections:
·         Rules intended to extend the scope of the Directive.
·         Rules intended to enhance the effectiveness of the enforcement powers of the competent authorities, their coordination, the role of ESMA and the sanctions regime to be applied to market abuse in the EU.
·         Rules intended to enhance the level of harmonization and coordination among regulators in the EU with the objective of creating a single rulebook.
 
This consultation is open until 23 July 2010.
 
 
Consultation webpage
Full consultation  

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