Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the European Securities and Markets Authority on the efficacy of current regulations to protect against the manipulation of the financial markets.

The Treasury is in regular close contact with the FCA and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) on all issues relating to financial market conduct.

Following benchmark cases on LIBOR, Foreign Exchange and Gold, the government passed legislation to regulate benchmark activities in UK. The administrators and submitters to eight benchmarks, including LIBOR, are now subject to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) standards of governance, controls, accountability, management of conflicts of interest and record keeping. This domestic regime will be superseded by the EU Benchmark Regulation when that enters into force.

The European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached a compromise on an EU Benchmark Regulation on 24 November 2015. The Regulation brings in a set of rules to ensure that benchmark providers in the EU have prior authorisation and are subject to supervision, in line with internationally agreed principles drawn up by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The government regularly engages with all the relevant European institutions to ensure that European-level regulations are strong and effective.