Companies subject to an investigation by the Financial Services Authority over insider trading have told their accountants to comply with any requests from the regulator.
The FSA has launched a crackdown on leaking price-sensitive information, the Daily Telegraph reports, following concerns that confidential data was being leaked to the press and advisers in the City before the rest of the market was told.
One deal believed to be on the FSA's radar is the tie-up between Pearl Group and Resolution. The battle for Resolution saw a bitter fight between Friends Provident, Standard Life and Pearl, before Pearl triumphed.
'Combating market abuse is one of the FSA's top priorities and we are committed to working in partnership with the industry to reduce the incidence of market abuse on the UK's markets,' director of markets Sally Dewar was quoted as saying.
In 2006 the FSA published a report on market abuse and it is working on a code of conduct for sectors it doesn't regulate, such as public relations, on protecting price-sensitive information.
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