Market Abuse
Definition
Unlawful behaviour in financial markets that undermines market integrity and investor confidence. Market abuse encompasses insider dealing (trading on material non-public information), unlawful disclosure of inside information, and market manipulation (including spoofing, layering, and wash trading).
Regulatory Context
The EU MAR framework and the US Securities Exchange Act Section 10(b) provide the principal legal bases for combating market abuse. Regulators invest heavily in surveillance technology to detect suspicious trading patterns and increasingly use data analytics to identify market abuse.