MAR - finalised market sounding guidelines for buy-side institutions

The Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) came into force on 3 July 2016. ESMA has just published its finalised guidance for firms receiving market soundings (Recipients), having previously consulted in January 2016.

This article highlights the key changes to ESMA's draft January 2016 guidelines. Importantly (and from a practical perspective), we do not regard these changes as particularly significant (albeit that they are likely to be viewed as broadly positive by the Recipient community).

The guidelines will apply two months after ESMA has published the various EU language versions of the guidelines. Within this two-month period, the FCA has to confirm to ESMA whether or not it intends to comply with the guidelines, stating its reasons if it does not intend to comply. We anticipate that the FCA will confirm such compliance.

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