A FTSE100 Deputy Company Secretary writes...
We are currently reviewing our internal communications and training regarding the Market Abuse Regulations (MAR) and Insider Dealing. Could you share what key points you typically include in your guidance to business teams about sharing financial performance information among senior management? Additionally, are there any notable public cases you reference to illustrate the potential pitfalls of sharing confidential information improperly?
Just to add that I agree with the answer of 2 April – we have an annual legal training session from the board, provided by our corporate lawyers, and that usually contains examples of where companies have gone wrong with MAR. We’ve used the same cases as examples, particularly Sir Christopher Gent, as that’s quite a “simple” story to follow
If you are looking for potential cases to illustrate the pitfalls of failing to comply with the FCA requirements, the FCA website contains a list of firms (company) or individual fined; date, amount & reason going back to 2013 here: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/2025-fines
David Mensley
The key points we typically include in guidance to management/business teams are:
1. the creation of, and use of, project names is critical
2. the FCA will not warn companies in advance of any alleged breaches. If an individual is deemed to be in breach, they will be arrested before the Company is notified.
We have historically highlight the cases where individuals have been prosecuted for passing on information (irrespective of the fact that these individuals did not trade in shares), in addition to cases where share dealing breaches involved.
Public case examples include:
Company officers: Sir Christopher Gent (fined as NonExec Chair of ConvaTec); Richard Howson (CEO), Richard Adam (CFO) and Zafar Khan (FD) – all Carillion.
Individuals: Neel & Matthew Uberoi; Walid Anis Chouhair and Fabiana Abdel-Malek; and Manjeet Mohal and Reshim Birk.
All cases are pubic and available via Google searches.