Insider dealing and market manipulation

Key points:

The EESC agrees in principle with the Commission's proposal to extend the scope of the existing rules on market abuse.

However, the EESC has a number of concerns, in particular:

• The vague wording of many offences in the proposal for a directive on market abuse, and the delegation of further detail to ESMA and/or the Commission at Level 2, are likely to cause significant legal uncertainty.. The EESC therefore calls for further clarification of offences at Level 1.

• Article 11 of the proposal for a Regulation requires putting systems in place to detect market abuse. Not only does this rule give rise to the concern that large numbers of uninformed reports will be filed but also places a disproportionate burden on smaller credit institutions in particular and is thus likely to impair local economic activity. The EESC calls on the Commission to opt for a more tailored approach to regulation.