Market Integrity Flashcards

1
Q

What are the benefits of fair and orderly markets?

A
  • Investor confidence
  • Economic growth + wealth creation
  • Transfer of capital with minimum costs
  • Liquidity - speed of capital transfer + easy identification of counterparties.
  • Settlement reassurance
  • Transparency
  • Rules limiting price volatility
  • ID + prevent market abuse
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2
Q

What can misleading statements do to the market?

A

Spread false information and result in the under/over valuing of assets which could impact the share price of listed firms.

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3
Q

What is insider dealing?

A

Specific or precise information which is not public and price sensitive and relates to a specific security or issuers or sectors where specific issuers operate.

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4
Q

What is public information?

A
  • Info published within the rules for the market - RIS announcement
  • Public record - company register of shareholders.
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5
Q

What are the predicates for the offence of insider dealing?

A
  1. Deal on inside info
  2. Encourage others to deal on inside info
  3. Disclose inside info not in the course of proper job.
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6
Q

Where must insider dealing occur for it to be a crime?

A

On a regulated market or through a professional intermediary.

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7
Q

Can a company commit insider dealing?

A

No

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8
Q

When is it legal to possess price sensitive information?

A
  1. Market makers acting in good faith
  2. Info can be proved to be market information
  3. Price stabilisation - using PSR.
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9
Q

What are controls that can be implemented within a firm to ensure price sensitive information is kept confidential?

A

Chinese walls

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10
Q

Is it compulsory to have Chinese walls?

A

No

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11
Q

How can a firm manage conflicts of interest and treat customers fairly? What measures can they take?

A
  • Prevent/control information exchange including a conflict of interest.
  • Separate supervision of client facing staff
  • Remove direct link between remuneration of one group and another where there may be a conflict of interest.
  • Limit anyone from exercising inappropriate influence over the way things are run.
  • Measures to prevent the simultaneous or sequential involvement of a relevant person in separate services o or activities when it may impair the proper management of conflicts of interest.
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12
Q

What types of insider lists need to be maintained?

A

Permanent and ad-hoc.

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13
Q

Which EU legislation provides templates for insider lists?

A

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR)

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14
Q

What is a grey list?

A

A list containing securities which can be traded during the sensitive period subject to compliance approval.

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15
Q

What is a restricted list?

A

A list of securities that cannot be traded during the sensitive period.

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16
Q

What is the regulator concerned about regarding the secrecy of price sensitive information?

A
  • Distribution of restricted lists to unnecessary people.
  • Failure of the management/compliance to be aware of what info is subject to NDAs.
  • Proper desk policies
  • IT controls even for external contractors
17
Q

Who comes under the MiFID definition of relevant persons?

A

Anyone in a firm and their relatives or cohabitees or outsourced service providers.

18
Q

What should a Personal Account Dealing policy restrict?

A
  1. Personal transaction contrary to MAD - improper disclosure of price sensitive info, conflicts with a firm’s customers.
  2. Improper advising or procuring someone to inside deal.
  3. Improperly disclosing inside info if the person is likely to inside deal.
19
Q

Should PA deals that are not accepted by compliance, by recorded?

A

Yes

20
Q

Who don’t the PA rules apply to?

A
  • Discretionary management transactions where the deal has not been discussed between the manager and client.
  • Certain funds where the client is not involved in the management of the fund.
21
Q

When is market integrity most at risk?

A

During the production and dissemination of research on listed companies and their securities.

22
Q

Who cannot PA deal?

A

Financial analysts who know the timing and likely price of an investment or content of research which is not yet published to the client.

23
Q

What are the exceptions to the PA dealing rules for financial analysts?

A
  • Market maker acting in good faith

- Execution only clients

24
Q

What are financial analyst prohibited from receiving and doing?

A
  • Inducements

- Promising favourable research

25
Q

Are there restrictions on the viewing of draft investment research?

A

Yes, research containing a recommendation on the target price of a security cannot be viewed other than to get compliance sign off.

26
Q

What percentage shareholding would an investment firm have to have in a issuer for it to make a disclosure of the shareholding?

A

5%

27
Q

Would a firm have to disclose any investment banking services provided by them?

A

Yes

28
Q

What is a general disclosure firms have to make?

A

The organisational and administrative arrangement within a firm that prevent conflicts of interest in relation to research recommendations including any information barriers.

29
Q

Which pieces of US legislation provide safeguards for whistle-blowers?

A
  1. Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform

2. Consumer Protection Act (2010)

30
Q

Which piece of UK legislation provides safeguards for whistle-blowers?

A

Public Interest Disclosure Act (1998)

31
Q

If someone traded on inside information that included the likely timing of a sale of securities and the price at which the securities were going to be traded, can that person be guilty of insider trading?

A

No - if they can prove that this information was market information and that they would have traded in that way anyway regardless of whether they had the inside info or not.