The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will host an open hearing at its office in Paris on 8 October on its consultations on the draft technical standards and implementing measures for the market abuse regulation.
The hearings are not the most exciting of affairs dominated by EU legalese, but are worth attending for anyone keeping on an eye on financial-style regulation in energy trading.
The market abuse regulation will update the market abuse directive, which has the lovely acronym MAD. The market abuse regulation overlaps a great deal with REMIT for energy companies, the regulation on energy market integrity and transparency. REMIT also deals with market abuse and insider trading, but is specific to power and gas markets.
Any power or gas trades classified as derivative will also come into the scope of the market abuse regulation as well as REMIT. Lawyers have previously said regulatory authorities for energy and finance are likely to work together and decide which regulation is the most appropriate if a suspected breech falls between the two.
The hearing is important for anyone involved trading in emissions allowances too. The paper on draft technical advice consults on issues such as minimum thresholds for exempting certain participants in the emission allowance market from the requirement to publicly disclose inside information.