09 February 2012

Hedgeweek: Changes to the Market Abuse Regime for Irish-listed funds

Pursuant to the Market Abuse (Directive 2003/6/EC) Regulations 2005 (the "Market Abuse Regulations"), since 1 July 2005 the Central Bank of Ireland has delegated market monitoring and investigation tasks to the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE).

These delegation arrangements ended on 31 January 2012, and the Central Bank is now carrying out all monitoring and investigation functions formerly carried out by the ISE, in addition to its own monitoring and investigation functions under the Market Abuse Regulations.

From 1 February 2012, the Central Bank is conducting all market abuse inquiries with respect to investment funds listed on the MSM. The Central Bank will also continue to conduct its own market surveillance of the MSM in order to detect any potential cases of market abuse.

Listed investment funds previously used the standard Schedule 11 form to notify the market about transactions in shares in the fund by their PDMRs and connected persons. (PDMRs are "Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility” and, in the context of investment funds, are the directors of the fund.) The same form was used irrespective of whether the trigger for the disclosure was a notification under (i) the Central Bank’s Market Abuse Rules or (ii) the Companies Act 1990 of Ireland or (iii) both (as indicated in box 2 of the existing form).

Under the new regime, it has been necessary to revise the Schedule 11 to differentiate the information required under the Central Bank’s Market Abuse Rules from that required under the Companies Act 1990 of Ireland.

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