Suggested considerations
- Enhance surveillance: Implement real-time monitoring for spoofing, layering, wash trades, or coordinated orders creating artificial liquidity/pressure; calibrate alerts for atypical volumes or cancellations.
- Training: Conduct annual sessions on MAR price manipulation indicators, emphasizing individual liability even in group schemes.
- Policies: Update trading manuals to require pre-trade risk checks, order cancellation limits, and documentation of trading intent; mandate reporting of suspicious patterns to compliance/MLRO.
- Audits: Review historical trades for FOAT, equities, or warrants; self-report if issues found to mitigate fines.
- Governance: Senior managers certify no manipulation tolerance; integrate into MiFID II best execution and transaction reporting.
What changed
This is an enforcement decision, not a regulatory change; it reaffirms existing prohibitions under the French Monetary and Financial Code (Article L. 433-1-2) and EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR, Regulation (EU) No 596/2014) against price manipulation, including fixing prices at artificial levels, disseminating false/misleading signals on supply/demand, or using deceptive orders. No new requirements are introduced, but it signals AMF's interpretation of manipulation in coordinated individual actions, consistent with prior cases.
Compliance impact
Urgency: High - Matters due to escalating fines (e.g., €590k here, up to €10M in ) and personal liability for individuals, amid AMF's pattern of 2024-2025 actions targeting manipulation across assets. Non-compliance risks reputational damage, trading bans, and appeals (e.g., ongoing in ); firms must act now to fortify defenses against investigations triggered by market data analytics.