Glossary

Insider trading is when a person in possession of confidential information uses it to gain an unfair advantage in the financial markets. The involved party will typically buy or sell a public company’s financial securities, or encourage a third party to do so, based on material information unavailable to anyone else in the market.

Internal whistleblowing is the act of reporting any workplace misconduct to a designated person or department within the organisation. External whistleblowing is when the whistleblower reports their concerns to a third party, unconnected to the organisation in which the alleged offence occurred.

Internal whistleblowing is when an employee reports unlawful activity within a company via internal channels. Whistleblowing can include reporting on corrupt practices, fraud, theft, harassment, misconduct, discrimination or any other such issue. 

Market abuse is any unlawful behaviour that is intended to disadvantage other players in a qualifying market. This gives the perpetrator an unfair advantage over investors unaware of the misconduct. Market abuse behaviours can include disseminating false information, using non-public inside information to inform trades, distorting pricing mechanisms and other such illegal activity.

The Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) came into effect in 2016 to ensure a uniform standard of market abuse guidelines across the EU. The regulation covers a wide range of topics, including what constitutes a market abuse offence, sanctions for breaching its laws, reporting requirements and exceptions.

Market manipulation, a form of market abuse, is the illegal act of artificially altering the supply and demand of a financial security to deceive other market participants. For example, placing fake orders to inflate the price of a particular security.