The FCA have published this “one minute guide” to the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), which will start to come in to force in the middle of next year. MAR  (and MAD II) is the successor to the original Market Abuse Directive which came into force several years ago.

The rules span several anti abuse measures including rules on the use of inside information and market manipulation. They will apply to all derivatives trades as well as spot commodities. Those in the commodities trading sector will need to note the interaction between these rules and the changes to MiFID Annex I Section C, which will classify many physical forward trades as derivatives.

The REMIT rules apply similar prohibitions to the gas and power sector and previous presentations by regulators have indicated that it will be REMIT which will apply to most trading in those commodities. However those who trade other commodities and commodity derivatives will need to take steps to comply with these rules.