ESMA – Financial Treason & Crime

Leanna Reeves, 08 April 2021

Insider trading must be tackled by regulators to provide a fairer market for small shareholders, particularly since the pandemic caused record levels of retail trading accounts, says Mohammed Rharrabti, senior business analyst at Natixis.

“You can go to a forum and see many people exchange about their trade and shares. If you’re a small shareholder, you will have the opportunity to see all the moves. If you see something gaining 20 percent in a day it could be because of the news and so on, but there will be people that have taken this position 10 days before. This is not normal.” he says. Continue reading “Article: Concerns over insider trading mount”

03/01/202104/17/2021

Article: EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal

Article - Media, Publications

EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal

Najiyya Budaly, 01 March 2021

The European Union’s markets watchdog must improve its supervision of national regulators, a technical advice group said on Monday after it found that Germany’s largest post-war accounting fraud had laid bare deficiencies in the authority’s oversight of market abuse and auditing rules.

The Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group, which provides advice on policy development to the European Securities and Markets Authority, recommended that ESMA should improve protection for investors and ensure integrity in markets after an accounting scandal at Wirecard AG revealed gaps in its supervision. Continue reading “Article: EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal”

02/24/202104/15/2021

Article: EU Watchdog Wants Zero-Commission Probe After GameStop

Article - Media, Publications

EU Watchdog Wants Zero-Commission Probe After GameStop

Irene Madongo, 24 February 2021

Commission-free trading should be scrutinized following the extreme volatility of stock in GameStop driven by a surge in trading using social media, according to the head of the European Union’s markets regulator.

Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority, took aim on Tuesday at a move toward allowing investors to trade stocks for free. He told the European Parliament’s economic affairs committee that low-cost or no-cost trading can create less transparency for investors. Continue reading “Article: EU Watchdog Wants Zero-Commission Probe After GameStop”

04/01/202004/30/2020

Web: Short Sales Bans in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Web

Short Sales Bans in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Barnabas Reynolds, Thomas Donegan, Russell Sacks

Shearman & Sterling, 1 April 2020

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous European jurisdictions, including France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Belgium have enacted short sale bans in an attempt to stabilize financial markets and maintain investor confidence. The following note provides an overview of these bans as well as an overview of the 2008 partial ban(s) on short selling by the U.S. in response to the financial crisis. To date, the United States has not yet indicated that it is considering a ban on short selling in response to market volatility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continue reading “Web: Short Sales Bans in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic”

04/04/201204/08/2021

Article: “Naked” ban deals further blow to CDS

Article - Media, Publications

“Naked” ban deals further blow to CDS

Christopher Whittall, 04 April 2012

A ban on “naked” sovereign credit defaults swaps trading will be stricter and more far-reaching than market participants had previously thought and could severely damage market liquidity, analysts have warned.

The European Union recently published the final version of new regulation prohibiting participants from using CDS to take outright short positions in sovereigns. The regulation developed in the aftermath of various European politicians blaming sovereign CDS for peripheral bond yields widening during the euro zone crisis, despite a lack of empirical evidence to support these claims.

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