The Exchange has responded to FSA’s consultation regarding the implementation of the Transparency Directive in the UK.
We have been following the progress of the Transparency Directive for several years now, so we take a keen interest in its effective implementation in the UK. It is imperative that local implementation is effective, consistent and proportionate. However, we believe that the UK regime can and should be superequivalent to the EU Directive where there are demonstrable benefits of doing so.
For example, we support the retention of certain Listing Rules that go beyond the Transparency Directive minimum, as we believe they are valuable to the market. We also support the proposals to retain the Companies Act 1985 thresholds and deadlines for notification of major holdings, as we believe they have functioned well and that changing them would have a detrimental effect on market transparency.