"I have a very strong commitment to tackling market abuse... I think it is something where we need to increase the aggressiveness of the way we look at that issue."
Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, Chairman Designate of the Financial Services Authority

At the end of July, the FSA arrested eight people in connection with a major investigation into insider dealing rings. The operation involved 40 FSA staff. This was immediate confirmation of the more aggressive attitude demonstrated in Lord Adair Turner's statement which had just been given to the Commons Treasury Committee.

Some of this has to do with conditions in the marketplace. On the one hand, the effects of the credit crunch are encouraging unfounded rumours about financial institutions promoted by unscrupulous dealers in order to profit from short selling. On the other, there is concern that suspicious trading patterns could become harder to spot with the emergence of new trading venues.

Clearly, therefore, the key issue is enforcement by the FSA and, deriving from this, the proper control of inside information and systems. This is reflected in this year's conference programme which is structured as follows:

• A keynote address from the Financial Services Authority on enforcing the Market Abuse Regime
• A panel on enforcement
• Current issues in market abuse
• Systems and controls in market abuse: What are the FSA's requirements?
• The European scene
  

The audience will also be able to take part in concurrent workshops for both financial institutions and listed companies which will discuss the practical issues in meeting the FSA's expectations and cover the following topics:

• The control of inside information
• Transaction monitoring for institutions
• Training programmes
• Suspicious transaction reporting for institutions
• Relationships with third party advisers and suppliers
• The extra costs of implementation for listed companies
• Disclosure policies for listed companies
  

This conference should be attended both by the compliance departments and in-house legal teams within financial institutions and also the company secretaries of listed firms. 

Conference Chairman
Martyn Hopper, Partner, Herbert Smith LLP

Keynote FSA Speaker
Jamie Symington, Head of Department, Wholesale Enforcement, Financial Services Authority

Other Expert Speakers Include
Nick Child, Managing Director and Head of EMEA Sales and Trading Compliance, Citigroup
Carlos Conceicao, Partner, Clifford Chance LLP
David Cooper, Head of Capital Markets Compliance, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
Sian Dalrymple, Managing Director, Compliance, Deutsche Bank
Mark Kalderon, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Bertrand Legris, National Expert on secondment to the EU Commission
Georgina Lewis, Associate Partner, KPMG Forensic
Michael McKee, Partner, DLA Piper UK LLP
James Palmer, Partner, Herbert Smith LLP
Stephen Pallard, Partner, Kingsley Napley
Georgina Robbins, Director, Georgina Robbins Associates

The event is being held at:
Kingsway Hall Hotel
66 Great Queen Street
London WC2B 5BX
Tel: +44 (0) 207 3090909
Fax: +44 (0) 207 3099696
Web: www.kingswayhall.co.uk

Nearest Tube Stations:
Holborn (Piccadilly and Central lines) and Covent Garden (Piccadilly line)

• Recent Developments in the Market Abuse Regime (Documentation)